God Help the Outcasts
by Wordmangler
Summary: A more realistic retelling of the movie with the focus on Susan's emotional turmoil after her life is changed for ever. How does she cope with this extraordinary thing that has happened to her? Gone is the slapstick, and much of the comedy, replaced with a focus on character development and careful factual research to make her story and her emotions seem as real as I can.
1. Birth of a Monster

**FOREWORD**: ABOUT THIS STORY

There are some fairly dark themes in MvA if you look behind the comedy and in-jokes. I wanted to explore those some more, as the movie was a little frustratingly quick about jumping from Susan's terror on her first day to apparent acceptance three weeks later. Three weeks in that bare cell, with nothing to do, no contact with the outside, and knowing you didn't do anything wrong would just not leave her as well-adjusted as we see her. And going that route in the fiction would lead to a very different story, one darker than even I wanted to tell. So I have made a few minor changes to canon. just to mitigate their living conditions and make it more reasonable that Susan was coping. There are some other minor changes to things that did not seem quite logical to me in the movie. I also changed her initial introduction to the facility a fair bit. However, the major beats are all there.

I have also tried to take a reasonably serious look at just what problems a fifty-foot giantess would face. I had to ignore the square cube law, however: quantonium clearly changes some fundamental laws of physics. The Art of MvA (searchable to an extent in Google Books if you want to check) puts her weight at 23,640 pounds, or 11.82 tons. Heavier than all but the biggest elephants. But other issues I have tried to deal with as rationally as possible. Physical measurements are based on a "giantess calculator" I found online; Susan's strength is based on the official "dossier" on her at the MVA website.

There is no "slash" here-Susan and Dr C do not fall madly in love, and I have tried to make it clear that Link, not being human, is not even interested in her that way. To say nothing of Bob. Who, by the way, I refer to as "Bob" and not "B.O.B" as to me that is said "Bee-Oh-Bee." If it were up to me, I'd probably have gone with "Ben"...

This story is set in 2012, as that was when I started writing it, and as the original movie is set in the "present day" there is no particular reason why this story should be set four years ago.

Spelling is British style, before anyone complains about things like "colour." References to places are all accurate I hope (thanks to Google Maps, I can virtually stroll around Modesto...). Constructive criticism is of course very welcome.

The very sensitive should be warned that there is some limited, non-sexual nudity. There is no _possible_ way that Susan's wedding dress stretches that much, for a start...

* * *

** 1. Birth of a Monster**

She was cold. The chill slowly penetrated her, and she became dimly aware that she was lying down on a hard surface, and a buzzer was sounding. Her brain was fuzzy, filled with strange images. Had she just got married? Yes, that was right. No wonder she was feeling confused. She remembered a church, her white dress, Derek standing there in the gazebo telling her his great news. Well, great for their future together. Okay, so their honeymoon in Rome would wait – Susan knew that you couldn't pass up an opportunity like this. Then she had been … it was unclear. She remembered running, a heavy blow and a strange green glow, a feeling of warmth and power, but then she was back in the church, the cute little white-painted church she had wanted to be married in since she was a little girl. It was such a romantic little church. Susan groaned slightly, still half-asleep. She'd had the most bizarre dreams. Unpleasant ones, she knew, though she could only remember snatches. The church being destroyed. The world getting smaller and smaller, and Derek falling, falling down and down and down. Then the bees had come and stung her.

"Derek, my darling?" she whispered. She stretched out an arm to caress her new husband, the oh so handsome and clever Derek who had finally asked her the question. But he wasn't there. There was nothing there but empty space. Groggily, Susan stretched out further, calling his name again, and suddenly realised she had rolled off the edge of the hard bed. It seemed to take a second or two to fall, and she hit the hard ground with a sound like thunder.

Startled, she opened her eyes, blinking. She was lying on a metal floor, in a small room dimly lit only by a tiny white bulb. An alarm was sounding. She gasped, and tried to sit up, but her limbs felt uncoordinated, like she was drunk. She got halfway up and slipped down again, her head throbbing. Had she got that drunk at the wedding feast? She didn't remember any of it. Had she, nice, clean, sober Susan Murphy, got so drunk she had ended up in a police cell? The shame brought a flush to her cheeks. What would Derek think? On their very first night of marriage, too. She felt her eyes water, and a tear roll slowly down her cheek.

"Derek, Derek, I'm so sorry," she moaned, holding her head in her hands. It was then she realised she was wearing a strange jumpsuit, made from some thin silken material. Susan flushed. Somebody had stripped her, and then dressed her, all while she was unconscious. Derek would hear about that. He wouldn't be pleased with the police. She needed to contact him. How? It was dark and hard to see, but the cell seemed completely empty. It was a strange cell—all metal walls, two leaning inwards, a metal floor, no bars, and now she realised that it didn't even have a door. Where was she? What kind of jail was this? Was this Modesto Jail? She called out, but there was no response. Just her voice echoing in the small space, making it sound deeper and more resonant. Where was Derek, or his lawyer – he was bound to send one in. Why hadn't he already? Was he so embarrassed about what she had done that he was punishing her? What was the time? Where was she? Why had she drunk so much last night she couldn't remember a thing? Groggily, she crawled into the corner and huddled there, wrapping her arms around her knees to try and make herself as small as possible, and started to weep quietly at her shame.

Suddenly a red flashing light came on, strobing on and off. Startled, Susan looked up. Heavy mechanical noises filled the cell. Susan started to get scared. What kind of jail was this?

"Derek? Are you there Derek?" she called. Her voice definitely sounded strange to her. Low, almost echoing, like she was hoarse. Had she sung too much karaoke or something?

A loud groaning sound answered her, and she felt the wall behind her move up. It slowly crept open, letting in a bright flood of light.

Now very scared, Susan scuttled to the far end of the cell, pressing herself against the sloping wall, but to her horror, the mechanical noises got louder and louder and the back wall started moving, forcing her out. She scrambled to keep her place, but the floor was perfectly smooth. With a shriek, she suddenly found herself being pushed out of the cell.

Hunched over in a ball, Susan looked around. She was in a huge five-sided chamber, brightly lit, and which seemed to be quite empty, apart from a single small table and chair. She slowly stood up and tried to make sense of where she was. She felt dizzy. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. The walls were all sloping inwards, and lined with more trapezoid doors, but there was no sign of anyone. Aside from a stencilled sign on the wall that meant nothing to her, it was featureless. Quite sterile. She could see smaller openings, little hatches, along the bottom edge of the floor, and tiny glass panels at various levels.

She thought she heard something. Very small voices. They seemed to be coming from under a small hatch or door panel that was open a tiny amount. Was there someone else here? The door only appeared to be about a foot or two high, but perhaps it was a vent or something.

"Hello? Is there someone there?" She bent down and tried to see inside, but it was dark. "Could you tell me where I am?"

There was no response. Just a quiet clicking, scratching sound, followed by a wet plop. Susan was starting to get very scared. This didn't look like any normal jail. Had she been kidnapped? She suddenly realised that was probably what had happened. But why her? Her family wasn't exactly poor, but wasn't that rich either, and nor was Derek. Kidnapping her for ransom made no sense. Was this a special sanatorium for drunk brides? Was she in here to detox? Why was there nobody else around?

She realised she could smell something. It was...food of some sort. Coming from the table. She could see a bowl of something sitting there. She moved across cautiously, suddenly realising she was ravenous. The large room was deserted, but she was sure she was being watched. All those little glass panels for example—she was sure there were cameras behind them.

In a daze, she walked across to the table, every footfall sounding like a crashing thump on the concrete floor. She saw a large bowl sitting on the table, filled with what looked like fresh creamy porridge, and there was an old but clean spoon beside it,

"This must be a dream," Susan told herself. Her head was slowly clearing, but her memories were still hazy. But she definitely remembered some images more clearly. She had been dreaming of…Alice in Wonderland, that was it. Definitely. She remembered shrinking and growing images. So this must be part of the dream still. The part where Alice had to shrink herself to fit through the door to escape. "Okay, that must be the Eat Me food," Susan told herself. "Then I can eat that, shrink, and escape through that small door. Where is the white rabbit, I wonder?"

Suddenly she felt something underfoot, and realised she had stepped on whatever it was. It looked like a tiny chair, now quite mangled. There was a tiny table beside it. "I guess that's the one with the Drink Me to make me big again," she mumbled, her mind feeling furry around the edges. "Oops."

She bent down, picked up the spoon, and nervously took a small mouthful. It certainly tasted like porridge, but there was no texture to it at all. It was like eating baby food. Pureed oatmeal or something, Susan decided. "Well, if this is a dream, I should get small enough to leave, and if it isn't, then…" She tailed off, not sure what she would do if it wasn't a dream.

She sat and ate for a few bites, and the pain in her head quickly subsided. Just as she reached out the spoon for another mouthful, she spotted movement. A quick scurrying, and a chittering sound. Susan saw a flash of movement out the corner of her eye and whirled around to try and see what was happening, her heart in her mouth. Then she gasped as she suddenly saw a cockroach climb up onto the plate.

"Hello," it said.

"Argh!" she screamed, jumping up and whacking at it with her spoon. "No, get away, oh, you horrible thing!"

"Please, madam!" came a small tinny voice. "Stop! Doing! That!"

Susan looked around wildly for the source of the voice as she continued whacking at the disgusting bug. Finally she had shaken it off her spoon, and it stood uncertainly on the table, on two legs. It was the biggest cockroach, with the biggest eyes, she had ever seen, and it appeared to be …. No, that was insane. Susan rubbed her eyes and blinked. It looked for all the world as if it were wearing a white coat.

"Wow. Whatever mad scientist who made you… went all out…" it said, and then collapsed. But it was up again in a moment as Susan stood frozen in shock.

"Oh great," she moaned out loud. "Alice gets a white rabbit, I get a white cockroach."

"I am not a cockroach, thank you," the cockroach said in a clipped English accent. "I am a scientist. A mad scientist, no less."

"And I suppose you're late for a very important date?" Susan asked.

The cockroach sat on the edge of the plate of pureed oatmeal. Susan could see that underneath the white coat it appeared human: only the head was some bizarre distorted insect head.

"Not really, no," the cockroach said. "I came to meet you, and welcome you to the Facility."

"The … facility?" Susan asked, lowering her spoon.

"No, the Facility," the cockroach corrected her, enunciating the capital F. "Monster Containment Facility. It's been so long since we had any new monsters. The others were too shy, so I came out to greet you. The name's Doctor Cockroach, PhD. Government-registered mad scientist and genius. May I enquire as to your appellation, my statuesque platinum beauty…?"

"My name? Uh, I'm Susan," Susan said nervously.

"No, I mean your monster name."

"My … monster name?"

"Like, what do people scream when they see you coming? You know, like 'Look out, here comes…' Mega-Maid, Monsteria, whatever."

"Uh, they don't call me anything," Susan said, by now terribly confused. "People generally don't run screaming when they see me. But my friends call me Susie."

"That's how they describe you in the news?" the cockroach asked her, one antenna twitching. "'The town was attacked by the terrifying giantess … Susie'?"

"Huh? What? Who? Who's a giantess?" Susan asked, confused.

Cockroach raised an antenna. But before he could answer, a new voice interrupted. "You're the giantess, sweet cheeks."

Susan turned to look at the newcomer. It was a … what was it? A little scaly lizard ape with a fish tail, or something else out of a fevered nightmare. It too was very small, only a bit bigger than the white-coated cockroach man. What on earth was going on? She had never had a dream quite this weird before.

The fish-ape vaulted onto her leg, then clambered rapidly up her body to her shoulder. Susan turned her head to look it, craning away in disgust. She wanted to flick it off, but there was no way she was going to touch such a disgusting creature. Then to her horror it reached over and grabbed her nose, wiggling it. Susan was too stunned and terrified to move a muscle.

"So. First day in prison, reckon you're gonna take on the toughest guy in the yard? I'd like to see you try! The name's Link, baby," the fish-ape said. "Missing Link. As in, the missing link. Geddit? Bam! Kapow!" The creature jumped on the table top and executed a series of kung-fu style flips and kicks until there was a crack and he fell down groaning. "Ow…"

Susan slowly backed up, unable to speak. Her mind was in chaos. Why was she dreaming of a tiny humanoid fish, of all things?

"Great, first new monster in years and she doesn't do anything," the fish-ape commented as he got up, rubbing his back. "I was hoping for a wolfman, or a mummy. You know, someone to play cards with."

"What … where…?" Susan gasped. What were these things? Scaly talking apes, tiny men with cockroach heads? This must be a dream. No, a nightmare. Too much rich wedding cake? Too much wine—was she still drunk? Susan had never been completely blind drunk before, and wondered if this was what it was like. She nervously backed away from the bizarre creatures, her heart pounding in fear. Then she trod on something gooey and fell slowly backwards, hitting the floor with a colossal crash. Rubbing the back of her head, she found she had trodden on some blue goop that was stuck to her foot.

"Oh, gross," she gasped, trying to scrape it off. It stuck to her hand. She tried to shake it off, but it oozed down, and then she realised it had an eyeball and was looking at her.

"Welcome! I'm Doctor Cockroach!" it said from a featureless mouth.

"No, I'm Cockroach," the tiny insect-headed man said. "You're Bob."

"Hi, I'm Bob! Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate for short!"

Susan gasped, and flung the blob away from her. It sailed into the table and split in two.

"My back!" it cried, and then laughed as the two pieces of goop merged. "Oh wait, I don't have a back!"

"You'll have to forgive him," Cockroach said smoothly. "But as you can see, he has no brain."

"Brains are totally overrated," Bob interjected. "Turns out you don't need 'em."

Susan sat and stared at the blue gelatinous mass. It was true: the blue goo creature was translucent, and she could see a single eyeball floating in what appeared to be its face, but there was nothing else.

"I personally beg to differ, of course," Cockroach said with a small cough. "IQ of 200, thank you. More brains than the rest of you put together."

"I'm getting scared… Wake up Susan, wake up! Please wake up!" Susan cried in exasperation, cradling her head in her hands. She brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes, and suddenly realised something else had changed. Sitting up, she bent forwards to get her bangs visible, and gasped. Her rich dark chestnut locks had turned completely white. White hair, like an old woman! What on earth was going on? She started to weep again.

The tiny cockroach man came over to her, and patted her shin, the only part he could reach. Then he scurried up her arm to her shoulder. Startled, Susan automatically tried to swat the insect.

"Please relax," came the insect man's voice in her ear. Susan desperately tried to brush it off again, and only succeeded in hitting her head. "And please stop trying to squash me!" he added in her other ear. "I'm trying to help you!"

"This isn't very Alice in Wonderland," Susan muttered to herself, very confused, rubbing her temples. "I don't remember any fish or blobs in the book. And why aren't I shrinking?"

"Shrinking, my dear?" Cockroach asked, one antenna quivering.

"Uh, yes. I ate the magic food, so I should be shrinking so I can get out the door. That's how the story works."

Cockroach looked at Link and Bob, then back at Susan.

"They must have really used a lot of tranq," Link said with a shrug. "She's kookoo-bananas!"

"I am not!" Susan retorted. "At least… I don't think I am. I can't remember…how I got here… Please, can one of you...things...tell me, where is here?"

"Uh, Susan, isn't it?" Cockroach said gently, so gently she had to strain to hear him. "How much do you remember? Do you remember your rampages?"

"Rampages? You mean I did get drunk at the wedding banquet?"

"Wedding banquet?" It was Cockroach's turn to look confused, or as confused as an insect-headed man could look.

"He seems upset," Bob offered. "How can we cheer him up?"

"Her," Dr Cockroach corrected him. "Bob, we are in the presence of the rare female monster."

"No way!" the blue blob declared. "It's a boy! Look at his boobies."

"Bob, we need to have a wee talk," Link grinned. "She's all woman. Every…last…inch of her," he added, examining her carefully. "Those legs just go on and on…"

"Stop ogling me, you pervert!" she said hotly.

"Gentlemen, I'm afraid we are not making a very good first impression," Cockroach informed the others. "You'll have to excuse Link," he added. "He has no class whatsoever. The first thing he did when he escaped from the lab in Hawaii was terrorise the local beaches. In fact that's the only thing he did. The national guard had to be brought out to stop him carrying off girls in bikinis."

"Now, I never hurt none of them, see?" Link called up. "It was just for fun. You tell giant girl here."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Susan asked, annoyed. "You're the tiny one. You're barely bigger than cockroach man here."

"Uh, no, Susan," Cockroach explained. "I'm actually nearly six feet tall. Nearly seven if you count my antennae."

"What do you mean?" Susan asked suspiciously. "You can't be that tall. I could pick you up with one hand."

"I mean, my dear, that your hand is nearly five feet long. Or a hundred and fifty centimetres in scientific metric measurements. Based on that, and your general proportions and anatomy, I'd put you at somewhere around fifteen metres tall at least. Or fifty feet, to use your quaintly archaic American measurements."

"Impossible," Susan said. "You're a tiny bug-man. Bugs are small. I'm a normal girl."

"Ah, no, not any more I'm sorry," Cockroach said soothingly. "You are in fact what is commonly referred to as a giantess. Look at yourself."

Slowly, nervously, Susan stood up, looking down at her body. She held her hands up in front of her. They looked normal. Her legs looked normal. Her torso looked normal. She felt normal. No, it wasn't possible.

"I look perfectly normal," she told him. "You're the weird-looking ones."

"Take another look at that jumpsuit you are wearing," Cockroach suggested.

Susan did so. She had earlier noticed how fine, almost silken, it was, and the fact it was sewn from lots of smaller panels. Now she took a closer look. The stitching was almost invisibly small. It looked as if dozens of little bits of fabric had been sewn together into one huge one to make her clothing.

"I …." Susan gasped for breath. Her? A giantess? Images, memories, came flooding into her mind. The world getting smaller, shrinking, as…as she grew taller, larger. It had been…in the church. Just before the ceremony was completed. She'd been feeling so amazing, so strong, just standing there about to finally be Mrs Derek Dietl, the Weatherman's Wife, and then suddenly everything else got smaller. Or… maybe she'd got bigger, Susan realised with a shock. She remembered people shouting, screaming, trying to flee the church, and then she kept growing, and growing, her clothes splitting and ripping, falling in shreds off her, leaving her stark naked. And still she kept on getting bigger, and bigger, until she broke through the roof. And then… And then… There were men. Little men. In black. Susan remembered their black suits. And black helicopters. There were ropes. Trying to tie her down. She was holding Derek. Or she wasn't…. Something had been shot at her, she had felt a prick and…and that was all. And then she had woken up here. In this prison. Susan shook her head, trying to clear it. What was she? A freak? A monster? No, this wasn't possible. It couldn't be…

She backed away in fear from these strange tiny creatures. This wasn't happening. Nothing here made sense. It was a madhouse. "Please tell me I had a nervous breakdown at the wedding and now I'm in a mental hospital on medication that's giving me hallucinations…"

Suddenly she realised she had bumped into something. Something big and soft and furry. Her heart in her throat, Susan suddenly remembered all those horror movies where the heroine had backed away from one danger, only to run into another one even worse she hadn't seen.

Carefully, her heart pounding, she felt behind her. Whatever it was was very large indeed. There was a massive, deep rumbling roar from far above her. Was it a giant lion? Something even worse? Terrified about what she might see, Susan carefully looked up. A massive creature was standing behind her. What it was, she had no idea. It let out another throbbing roar, and Susan screamed in pure terror. She fled as far away from the great beast as she could.

"Don't scare Insectosaurus!" Link shouted as she shot past him, white as a sheet.

Susan pounded futilely on the thick steel plates.

"Every room has a door! There's gotta be a door here!" she shrieked. Susan dashed to another part of the wall. "Please! Somebody! I don't belong here! Let me out!" she pleaded desperately, weeping from primal fear.

"Hey! That is not a good idea!" Link called after her, but she ignored him.

"Let! Me! Out!" she screamed, thumping the unyielding metal.

Suddenly, with a heavy crunch and a loud grinding noise, the panel she was pounding on slid open.

Susan saw a pair of glowing red eyes shining out of the darkness inside. She backed away in fear as they approached, too terrified to flee, knowing there was nowhere to run. What new monster was this? But to her astonishment, she realised the glows were not eyes but lights, on a jetpack being worn by a tiny man in an army uniform. Or was it, Susan suddenly realised with horror, a normal man who needed the jetpack to reach her giant level?

"Monsters, back in your cells," he ordered. "And you: do not attempt to leave the Common Room without authorization!"

"Oh thank goodness! A real person! Uh, you are a real person, right? Not one of those half-person, half-machine…you know, whatever you call those things…" Susan trailed off nervously.

"A cyborg."

"Oh no! You're a cyborg?" Susan shrieked in confusion.

"Madam, I assure you, I am not a cyborg. My name is General W. R. Monger," he announced importantly.

"What is this place? Who are you? Who are all these people? Why I am being kept here? What happened to me?"

Questions poured out of Susan, but the general held up a hand. "All will be made clear in due course. Now, if you will follow me."

Unsure of anything, Susan nervously followed the floating general. She found herself in a long vaulted corridor, with balconies and offices on several levels. Most of which were below her own eye level. There were a number of men and women milling around, all of them no bigger than the general, or Cockroach, had been. Either the entire world had shrunk, or she truly was a giant, Susan realised.

"Where's Derek?" she asked as she looked around nervously.

"Your fiancé has been told you are being held by the government. That's all he needs to know," Monger said curtly. "Hold steady."

To Susan's surprise the floor began to move. It was a large conveyor platform, moving on tracks on the floor.

"This here facility is a converted missile base: this platform you are now on was once used for moving nuclear missiles," Monger explained. "Now it works to carry monsters like you."

"I'm not a monster! I'm a girl! I'm Susan Murphy, age 22, from Modesto, California! I'm an American citizen! I have rights! You can't keep me here. When Derek finds out about this..! He's a famous reporter! You—"

Monger shook his head.

"You're no longer covered by the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. Not while Special Order A-52 applies."

"Special Order A-52?"

"You are in a secret government facility, codenamed Area 52," the general explained as they moved along. "You see, in 1950, it was decided that Jane and Joe Public could not handle the truth about monsters, and should focus on more important things, like paying taxes and fighting Commies. So the government convinced the world monsters were stuff of myth and legend and then locked them in this facility."

"Locked in here? How long do I have to stay here?" Susan asked as the platform passed through a huge door. To her surprise, Susan realised that the entire facility was buried underground in a massive cavern. Looking behind her, she saw a titanic concrete cylinder stretching into the blackness. The moving platform dropped a few feet, and Susan nearly lost her balance, then it started crawling along a track on the outside of the building. Two small gyrocopters joined them, hovering around her shoulder height.

"Indefinitely," Monger responded calmly.

"Indefinitely? I can't leave?" Susan gasped.

"No," Monger said. "And no one knows you are here. Or even where here is. This place is an X file, wrapped in a cover-up, and deep-fried in a paranoid conspiracy. There will be zero contact with the outside world. Hold on."

Susan spread her legs for balance as the platform began to move up. "I can't leave?" she repeated in a whisper. "Why? How can you do this? Do you think Derek will let you get away with this kidnapping?"

"Actually he won't have a choice, and he can't do anything anyway. And you cannot be released. Not while you are such a potential danger to others, and a risk to society."

"I'm not a danger!" Susan shouted, angrily gesticulating.

"Look out!" Monger shouted, but it was too late. Her hand had hit one of the gyrocopters, sending it crashing to the platform. Monger swooped down and managed to pull the pilot out before the small craft exploded. "Code Seven! We have a Code Seven!" he shouted into a communicator. His duty done, he then turned his attention back to Susan as an emergency crew attended to the downed pilot.

"I'm so sorry," Susan wailed. "I didn't mean it!"

Monger covered his ears. "A little less volume if you please, ma'am," he demanded.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"The lab," Monger explained curtly. "Now that you're awake, you're getting a full physical."

"A physical?" Susan looked down at herself. "Are you going to cure me?"

"Not at this stage, ma'am," Monger said.

"Do you even know how?" Susan asked, rather miffed.

"That's what the physical is for. We need to know exactly what happened to you. I advise you to cooperate. It's for your own good."

"What has happened to me? Can you please at least tell me that?" she begged.

"I can. As to what happened we don't really know," Monger admitted. "Six days ago, a monitoring outpost detected an object heading towards the solar system. We don't know where it came from or what it was made of. But it hit the Earth in Modesto, California. On the lawns of a small suburban church, to be exact."

"My church?" Susan gasped. "You mean, our wedding?"

"Precisely," the general said. "Or to be more precise, you. It hit you square on and then just disintegrated, leaving you unharmed—apart from this interesting side effect. However what was in that meteorite, or object, we still have no idea."

"I got hit?" Susan asked. She did sort of have a dim memory of being pursued by something, trying to run and being unable to escape.

"You did. By some alien, outer space super-advanced object that has left you with enormous size and strength. We want to find out what has happened, and how we can duplicate it. Just think—an army of giants and we could crush those Red Chinese!"

"I don't want to be a weapon! I refuse!" Susan cried. "You can't make me!"

"It's your patriotic duty," Monger said once she was calmer. "Besides," he added a little more gently, "it's out of my hands as well. I'm just your warden."

"What if you can't figure out what it was?" Susan asked. "You won't be able to make giant soldiers then."

"In that case, we won't be able to get you back to normal, either," Monger stated.

"Oh." Susan was not sure how to react. While she did want to get back to normal size, she had always been a pacifist, and hated violence. Helping create super-soldiers was not an appealing thought. But nor was staying a freak, stuck in this prison.

"Anyway, you don't have a choice in the matter," Monger reassured her unhelpfully. Susan fell quiet as the platform continued its slow rise. Then it stopped, and moved back around before arriving at a another titanic door, which opened and let them through.

"We're here," he added, flying out along another high vaulted corridor as Susan followed on her platform.

Reluctantly, Susan stepped off the platform and followed the floating general down a side corridor so tiny she had to bend over. Well, tiny for her, she realised. The thought of a physical was not encouraging, but she consoled herself with the thought that it might help them cure her. Then she could get back to Derek, who must be worried sick about her, she thought. She felt her eyes water again, and did her best to choke back her tears.

The corridor ended in a massive open space, the size of a cathedral.

"Please step this way and remove your clothes please," came a new voice.

"What?" Susan asked, confused. The new speaker was an elderly man in a white lab coat. He looked very like Dr Cockroach, save for the head of course.

"Please remove your clothes and lie down," the tiny doctor repeated. Sighing, Susan complied. Nothing here made sense; nothing was as it should be. A tear escaped and splashed heavily on the ground as a range of machinery and technicians approached her. Humiliation and fear overwhelmed her as the small team of specialists began their investigations.

Susan found the medical humiliating and uncomfortable. It wasn't even being naked that was the worst part—that, at least, was understandable, though the large number of male doctors made her very embarrassed. The doctors had treated her like some strange specimen, giving her order after order, making her carry out all sorts of bizarre tests and subjecting her to all manner of probing. But finally it was over. Susan hurried to get dressed again as Monger flew back into the lab.

"This way," he ordered.

"Can you cure me now?" she asked hopefully.

"Of course not. We only just finished examining you. It will take months, or years, to evaluate all the data."

"Years!" Susan gasped. She felt dizzy. Would she really be locked away in here for years? No, that couldn't be right. This wasn't possible. Her parents…Derek…somebody would get her out.

Monger led her back to the main vaulted passageway, and ordered her to stand on the platform again. That took her into a great five-sided shaft, its bottom lost in the blackness, and lined with large windows and observation portals. There was a tall tower standing in the middle, like a watchtower in a prison.

"What is this place?" she whispered.

"Observation area. You will be held here for the first night so that we can keep an eye on you. You will be monitored at all times, don't worry."

"At all times? What about my privacy?"

"Monsters don't get privacy," the human told her acerbically. He gestured to a tall glass door .

"Inside."

Susan looked around. It looked like the same small bare cell she had woken up in that morning. Her face crumpled in despair.

"We had the prison psychologist redecorate your cell. Try to keep you all calm-like," Monger said, pointing out a tiny poster on the far wall. Susan could just make out a little kitten clinging to a branch above the caption 'Hang in there.' She started to weep again.

"But I don't want a poster," she wailed, looking up at the flying general, her eyes pleading and her lip trembling. "I want a real kitten hanging from a real tree. I want to go home…"

"Come on, Little Debbie, please don't cry. It makes my knees hurt. Now go and rest like a good little—like a good big girl. You will be fed again in a few hours. Enjoy your stay. Don't think of this as a prison. Think of it as a hotel you never leave because it's locked from the outside!"

"Wait, what? Prison? But I didn't do anything! Help!"

"Oh, and one other thing. The government has changed your name to Ginormica."

The glass doors clanged shut, their echoes reverberating, and Susan was alone. Fear and terror overwhelmed her, the adrenalin almost painful. Terrified and confused, she looked around nervously, hugging her arms tight around herself. The grey steel cell was dark and forbidding, and Susan felt more alone than she ever had in her life. There was no one to hold her, comfort her. No one would help her. She was utterly powerless. Giving in to utter despair, the young giantess slumped down in a corner, as far away from the prying eyes of the observation tower as possible, buried her face in her arms, and began to cry softly. Her life was over.

...

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**: I have removed the strange elevator cell, as I wanted to slowly ramp up Susan's concerns rather than jump right in, and the system seems very strange to me as well-every time they go to their cells, they get shifted up several levels? I need a map of the base... I have also removed the original Panopticon arrangement, though I may add it back in in a later revision.

[**June 2013, minor revisions]** In line with the sequel to this story, I have made a few minor changes regarding the common room. And after spending far more time and effort than any sane person would in examining the precise route Susan follows after leaving her cell, I have also added back in the panopticon arrangement, though changed it to a temporary observation area rather than their normal accommodation, as I still cannot believe that makes the slightest bit of sense. Especially for Insecto. And why are the other monsters in glass-fronted cells and Susan's is steel? That defeats the purpose of the central observation tower. One of these days I'm going to design my own Monster Containment Facility, but for the time being, I shall try to make sense of what we are shown. Which is really what this story is all about...


	2. The Innocent Imprisoned

**2. The Innocent Imprisoned**

"Are you awake, my dear?" came a voice that seemed familiar.

"Derek!" Susan gasped, her brain unable to focus. "Oh Derek, I had the strangest dream! I dreamt I was a horrible monster!"

"You certainly are not," the voice reassured her. "You're a very nice monster."

"I… what?" Susan groggily rubbed her eyes, her body aching. She remembered crying herself to sleep for some reason. Or was it a dream? No, she was on the floor—she must have fallen asleep on the floor. Her eyes reluctantly focused on a white-gowned figure just in front of her… Standing on her chest in fact. A figure that, she now realised, had a cockroach's head. She shrieked, shaking him off, and closed her eyes again to blot out her painful reality.

"It wasn't a dream," she moaned.

"You're a dream, baby," came a deeper voice.

"Shut up, Link," Dr Cockroach scolded. "Sorry to barge in on you, but I have your test results here, uh, Ginormica, and I knew you'd want to see them. Well, some of them anyway—they hid the rest of the files before I could gain access."

Susan cracked open an eye as the bug-man scurried closer. She could see him carrying a computer tablet of some sort. She flinched, trying not to look at his hideous head. What kind of nightmare was this? She shifted to a seated position and looking down at the three tiny monsters in front of her. She still couldn't see them as normal and herself as big, as the entire complex was on such a gigantic scale. There was nothing familiar to compare them, or herself, to. She still found it a little off-putting to look at the strange creatures. She had to keep fighting an urge to stare.

"Please don't call me Ginormica," she said. "My name is Susan."

"My apologies," he said with a slight bow. "Susan it is."

"Or Bob," Bob suggested. The others ignored him.

"This is madly fascinating," Cockroach said as he held the tablet in front of her face. "Your entire body radiates with pure energy, giving you enormous size and strength."

"What energy? What strength?" Susan moaned as she tried to get up. "I don't feel strong. I shouldn't even be here! I'm just a normal girl!"

"You sure ain't," Link drawled. "If you were, you wouldn't be locked up here with the rest of us. Face it girly-girl: you're a monster."

"Indeed you are," Cockroach added. "And one of the most impressive I've ever seen."

"I am not a monster," she informed them. "I'm plain old normal Susan Murphy. Height, five-six. Weight, uh, never mind."

"Interesting," Cockroach muttered. He made some quick calculations. "Well, well, well. That's significant. Since you were five foot six, you appear to have been increased in height precisely nine times. Your exact height is 15.214 metres, or 49 feet 11 inches, yet your weight is far less than it should be considering your size."

"My weight?" Susan asked, confused.

"Indeed," Cockroach said happily, consulting his tablet. "You weigh less than twelve tons!"

"Twelve tons?" Susan gasped. That was utterly inconceivable. She felt her waist and hips. Everything seemed normal.

"Yes, 11.8 tons, or 23,640 pounds to be precise: at least a quarter the weight you should be at your height. You're amazingly light," Cockroach said.

"Light? I'm as heavy as an elephant!" Susan exclaimed in disgust.

"A bit heavier, actually. But remember, you're also a great deal taller than an elephant," Cockroach noted. "If you were normally heavy in proportion to your size, your bones would splinter under the weight. You see, if you increase something in height by a factor of two, its mass increases by the cube, yet in your case it appears as if your physical strength has been cubed instead. To say nothing of all the other impossible changes in you. Your cardiopulmonary system, your nervous system… by any normal biology you are, quite literally, utterly impossible. Whatever substance mutated you has done things to the laws of physics that would drive Hawking mad."

"I guess," Susan said, not really following. "Who's Hawking?"

Cockroach put down the tablet and stared.

"Who's Hawking?" he repeated, aghast. "Where did you go to university?"

"Uh, actually, I didn't," Susan admitted. "I guess none of my friends did. It didn't seem all that important."

"Education is always important, my dear," Cockroach said. "Never let anyone tell you otherwise."

"Hey, don't feel bad," Link told her. "I didn't even go to school."

"Me neither," Bob agreed happily. "Don't need it!"

"Well, naturally, since you don't have a brain," Cockroach said. "I, however, have a PhD," he added, laughing in a way that made Susan doubt his sanity.

"As you keep reminding us," Link retorted. "Doesn't do you any good in here, however."

"Oh, but it does, my scaly friend," Cockroach replied. "Who else is able to come up with all our escape plans?"

"Escape plans?" Susan gasped, suddenly paying attention. "Can we escape? I have to get out of here, back to Derek. Maybe he can help me… with… my, uh, condition. How do we break out?"

"Forget about breaking out," Link told her. "Not even Insectosaurus is strong enough to break out of here. The place was designed to withstand a direct nuclear strike, after all."

"Insect—osaurus?" Susan asked, confused.

"You met him earlier," Link said. "Remember? You screamed and ran when he was just trying to be friendly. Not cool."

"I… I was scared," she admitted.

"Of course you were," Cockroach said soothingly. She looked at his bizarre face nervously. "To be taken away, locked in a prison, not allowed to see your family and friends, and to have to look at us ugly monsters all the time—of course you're scared."

Susan nodded, feeling her eyes water.

"We were all scared when we were brought here," he assured her.

"Not me," said Bob happily.

"No brain," Link said, shushing him.

"You're probably still scared, right? Of me, of Link, of Bob, of Monger, this place," Cockroach went on in his soothing tones. "You must think me the most hideous creature you've ever seen."

Susan started to nod, but quickly changed to shaking her head.

"Don't worry," Cockroach said. "I know. I'm a monster. That's why I'm here, after all. That's why we're all here. In time you'll learn to see past these external appearances, and see us as your friends. Because we are. We monsters need to stick together, to look out for each other. No one else will."

"Oh great, Doc, now you've made her cry again," Link said, exasperated.

"No, no, it's my fault," Susan said sniffling. "I shouldn't be so nervous of you. I mean, if I'm really a fifty-foot giantess, people would probably be scared of me. Fifty feet! How can I live as a fifty-foot freak?"

"Well, at least you're not as tall as Insecto," Link commented. "He's seven times your size."

"What was—what is he?" Susan asked.

"Giant mutated moth—_Bombyx mori_, to be precise," Cockroach explained. "Got hit with radiation in a Pacific nuclear test and grew 350 feet tall. Plus a few other changes."

"Brain still the size of a moth though," Link admitted.

"Well, mine isn't," Cockroach said. "And I would like to give it some exercise. I need to study these results. See if I can't find out what caused this most fascinating phenomenon."

"So can you figure a way out of this place with all those brains?" Susan asked, not very hopefully.

"Not as yet," Cockroach admitted. "I've tried, of course. Many times. Back when I thought it my destiny, my duty, to rule the world. I don't try any more. I decided I actually quite like it here. Maybe I'm just getting old."

"But I have to get out," Susan said desperately. "I'm supposed to be on my honeymoon right now!"

"Really? Congratulations," Cockroach said happily. "Where were you off to? Tahiti? Paris?"

Susan's face fell. "Fresno," she admitted.

"Fre—uh, Fresno? The one in California?"

"It was going to be Rome," Susan said defensively. "But Derek got an interview for a new job in Fresno, and of course that has to come first. I mean, we can go to Rome any time, right?"

"Maybe," Cockroach said cautiously.

"Sounds like you hooked a stinker," Link interrupted. "Work before his new wife, indeed. Ain't never been to Fresno, but you should try Tahiti!"

"I would, if I could ever return to normal size," Susan said, and felt her eyes water again. "Look at me! I'm a monster!"

"That's what we've been saying," Bob said unhelpfully.

"What will Derek say when he sees me like this?" she asked, blinking back tears and gesturing towards her huge body.

"We'll get you smaller before he does, don't worry," Cockroach reassured her. "If I can't do it, nobody can."

"You couldn't even fix your head," Link commented rudely.

"Not without access to my equipment," Cockroach said loftily. "Naturally."

"So if we can get to your equipment, you can cure me?" Susan asked hopefully.

"Uh, I think so," Cockroach said. "Assuming it's still all there of course. But if not, never mind!" he added brightly, seeing Susan's face fall again. "The most important equipment is in here!" he assured her, pointing at his mutated insect head.

Just then a loud bell sounded. "Ooh good, eat time!" Bob exclaimed happily.

"I don't even know if this is dinner or breakfast or lunch," Susan muttered as she got up nervously.

"It's dinner," came a voice in her ear. Startled, Susan jumped, landing with a large thump a dozen feet away. Monger was there, floating in his jet-pack.

"Don't do that!" she gasped. "You scared me!"

"Now that's not right. You're the monster—you're supposed to scare people, not the other way around. That's why you're in here."

"I'm not a monster," Susan entreated. "I shouldn't be here!"

"This is your first proper meal at the Facility, Ginormica, so there are a few points you should know." Monger said, ignoring her pleas. "Follow me."

Monger led her to the table and chair, beside which were a tiny table and chairs. Tiny compared to her, she realised with sadness, but normal size compared to everyone else. If it hadn't been for Monger and the other humans she had seen, she could almost persuade herself that these three strange creatures were the tiny ones, and she was just her usual height.

Sighing, Susan sat down on the chair, which was rather hard and cold—it looked like it had been bolted together from construction girders.

Monger took out his communicator and barked an order. A low hatch in the wall opened, and a wide platform slid out, holding a small bench with some dishes and food on it, and a large dish of some amorphous mass.

"What is that?" Susan asked with distaste as the other monsters eagerly collected plates and began spooning on items from the small selection on the table.

"Your dinner," Monger stated.

"What…is it?" Susan asked nervously.

"Today is Friday, so it's spaghetti and meat sauce," Monger explained. "You eat what the men eat, as we can cook it in bulk. And you need bulk feeding. You will be fed three times a day, at seven, thirteen, and nineteen hundred hours. Do you have any questions about the meal?"

"Why is my meal on the floor?" she asked, peering down at it.

"The only access to your table for normal people is by one of the ladders on the legs, so rather than go to the effort of using a crane each time, the army decided it was easier if you simply pick up the plate yourself."

"Great," Susan muttered as she leaned down and picked the bowl up. She set it on the table, and then discovered that the chair was fixed. She couldn't move it forwards, so had to sit on the front end.

"This isn't very comfortable," she complained.

"We don't have any soft cushions," Monger told her. "Anything else you want?"

"I just want to go home," Susan said sadly. "I want to go home!" She started crying again, sobbing heavily.

"Oh please stop crying. You're a big girl now, Ginormica," Monger said.

"Really big," Link added unhelpfully.

That only made Susan weep even more.

"Well, uh, I'll be back later to show you to your cell," Monger told her, and rapidly flew off.

"Please, Susan, we'll find a way out of this," Cockroach told her, scuttling up the table leg and patting her arm. "I promise you; I will do all I can to reverse what has happened to you."

"What if you can't?" Susan whispered, trying not to flinch at his touch.

"I am or was, or still am really, one of the world's foremost biogeneticists," Cockroach stated. "Any process that can be done can be undone."

"Can you unbake a cake?" Bob asked. "Because I really like raw cake batter, and if I could just get some cakes, I could eat their batter if you could unbake them."

"You are not a cake, Susan my dear," Cockroach assured her. "You are just a rather big egg, that's all. It will be a fascinating challenge. I expect my biggest in years. Now, please, you really need to eat."

"Yeah, a growing girl like you needs her food," Link commented.

"Shut up Link," Cockroach said. "Please ignore him, my dear. His view of etiquette was formed chasing bikini girls. Do try your meal. It appears to be spaghetti in a rather rich Bolognese sauce."

Susan took a small sniff. It did indeed smell like pasta. She spotted a spoon stuck in the mass, and took a tentative bite. "Urgh," she said, making a face. "It's not pasta, it's just…mush."

"No, it's definitely pasta," Cockroach said, taking a close look. He took a bite. "Yuck. Definitely pasta."

"You don't like it?" Susan asked.

"My tastes have changed ever since I had my wee, er, accident," Cockroach explained. He gestured down to his own plate, which Susan looked at for the first time. It was piled high with household refuse and kitchen scraps.

"You…eat that?" she gasped.

"Took me a while to accept the change," Cockroach admitted, scurrying back down again. "But now I find I am quite the connoisseur of garbage."

"I eat anything," Bob said proudly. "I'm not fussy! Meat, veggies, plates, knives, tables, waiters…"

"Some of us are more discerning," Cockroach said, lifting up a stained pink slipper and inhaling its bouquet before delicately nibbling at it.

"Not that I can tell," Link grimaced. "Here, you want some real food?" he added, holding up one of his raw fish. "They're really fresh. Not from frozen."

Susan blanched, and shook her head. Tiny as the fish were to her, she still didn't fancy eating them either whole or raw. With a sigh she turned to her own meal, an shapeless mound of what smelled, at least, like spaghetti and meatballs even if it didn't look or feel like it.

"It's like it's been puréed," she complained. "Why are they feeding me pureed food?".

"Food is no longer physically big enough to have texture for you," Cockroach explained. "I'm afraid without some cows or vegetables ten times normal size there's little that can be done. Soups, sauces, and things like jelly and custard and ice cream should be similar, however."

"Does this mean I never get to enjoy food again?" she asked forlornly.

"Look on the bright side," Link suggested. "At least you don't have to pay your own grocery bills any more. They would really add up in your present condition."

"Like an animal in a zoo," Susan sighed, a few tears escaping. She tried a few more mouthfuls. Looking closely, she could discern the individual strands, but they offered no texture at all. Aside from that, it tasted all right, but only barely. Cheap army issue. She suspected that the pasta was overcooked anyway.

"So you weren't made by a mad scientist then?" Cockroach asked her as he nibbled on some old mouldy corncobs.

"Ah, no, I don't think so," Susan said. "I was getting married."

"Did that make you bigger and stronger?" Bob asked.

"Uh, no, I don't think so," Susan said. What had? Her memories were hazy. "I was in the church, and I … I remember Derek said I was glowing. That's right. But not the romantic way. It was like I was lit up green from inside. And then everything started getting very small."

"Sounds like you were irradiated with something," Cockroach said. "I wonder what." He took another look at his tablet. "There are some very strange readings here," he admitted. "Way off the charts. I have never seen anything like this before. It will take me a while to analyse them. What on earth does this spectrograph mean?"

"What happened to you, then?" Susan asked, not understanding what he was on about.

"Oh, me?" Cockroach asked, reluctantly putting the tablet aside. "Well, you see, I was experimenting with genetic manipulation through spooky action non-local quantum entanglement. Normally, if you manipulate genes, the offspring will show the results. I wanted to see if I could combine the genes directly into a currently living person and get immediate effects by using matter recombination at the most fundamental level."

"Looks like you did," Susan commented.

"I did—to an extent," Cockroach admitted. "But this happened as a side effect. I can scuttle up walls, am impervious to radiation, and am very hard to crush, but also have this interesting new head. And a few other physical changes I won't bore you with. Well, one thing led to another and I tried to take over the world a couple of times and the army was called out and the next thing you know I'm in here."

"What about you, Bob?" Susan asked. "If I'm to live here with you, I should know who you all are."

"Me?" Bob asked. "I was just oozing around one day, then bam, here I am! Woah!"

"Let me explain," Cockroach said. "A genetically altered tomato containing deprotonated carbonic acid was combined with a chemically altered ranch-flavoured benzoic acid food preservative at a snack food plant. The resulting goop gained consciousness, and became an indestructible gelatinous mass of benzoate ostylezene bicarbonate; B.O.B. We don't know why he's blue, though."

"Yep, that's me," Bob said proudly. "Blue. And indestructible. Go on, sit on me. You can't hurt me."

"That's a relief," Susan said. "So, uh, Link. What's your story?"

"Don't really have one," the fish-ape replied. "Frozen, thawed, went to the beach, caught, ended up here."

"He's a 20,000-year-old frozen fish man who was thawed out by scientists," Cockroach explained. "He escaped and went back to his old watering hole. Which is now a posh resort. So there were some, er, problems with the new residents. So the army brought him here, along with the rest of us."

"What about … family? Friends?" Susan asked quietly. "Do you ever get to see them?"

Cockroach shook his head. "To be honest, none of us had many. Bob was created from a tomato. His family were probably made into soup. Link's family, if he ever had one, would have died aeons ago. And mine—well, my work always came first. I never had much of a family, or much use for friends. "

"But I do," Susan said sadly. "And I want to see them again!"

She began to cry again.

"Look, it's really not that bad here," Link said. He pushed his empty plate aside and padded over to Susan's foot. He grinned up at her. "Come on, girly. Give us a smile."

"That's not helping, Link," Cockroach said as Susan shuddered and looked away from the fish-ape's fang-filled maw. "Susan, I wish I could tell you everything is going to be fine and you'll be home tomorrow. But stiff upper lip, my dear. Things could be worse."

"How?" Susan asked bitterly, not looking up. "I'm a prisoner, a freakish monster, and I'll never see my friends and family again! And I've been forced to be naked and gawped at and probed by dozens of people! How could it get any worse?"

"This place isn't that bad, once you get used to it," Cockroach said soothingly. "And as long as you are alive and healthy, there's always hope. I swear, I'll do everything I can to find a cure."

"Oh dear, are you still weepy?" came a new voice.

Susan lifted her head and saw Monger floating in his jetpack a little in front of her.

"You! Let me out!"

"Come on, I'll show you to your cell," Monger said, ignoring her outburst.

"See you in the morning, Susan," Cockroach said.

"Yeah, catch you later, Gigantica," Link added.

"Her name's Ginormica," Monger said.

"No, it's Susan," Susan told him.

"Bye-bye," Bob called, and then started playing with his own eyeball.

With a sigh, Susan stood up, and was once again reminded of how tall she now was. Dully, she followed Monger across the room and back to her bare cell.

"You will be required to wake at seven. Good night." He flew out, and the door closed behind him.

Susan was left in the dimly-lit room, and in a few minutes the light flickered out and she was in darkness. She threw herself down on the bed and started weeping again. It had been the worst 24 hours of her life, with everything crashing down so soon after it all seemed so perfect. Well, apart from the bit about Rome being cancelled. That had been a blow, and it was as much as she could do to remain properly enthusiastic about the change. But she knew Derek's career was important to him, and therefore to her. And it was true that it could really help out their future. She had to be practical. But to think that just a day ago she had been standing at the altar, about to be married, and now she was a gigantic monster hidden away in a remote dungeon, surrounded by grotesque freaks, never to see Derek or her friends or her parents again. For the second time in a row, Susan curled herself up into a ball and cried herself to sleep.

* * *

**NOTES:** Susan's weight is taken from the official _Art of MVA_ book. I had originally used four tons, as the lower limit of what was remotely plausible (since simply multiplying her weight by 9 would leave her little heavier than a large cow). 12 tons is probably around the higher limit of what she can get away with in terms of what we see her doing.

We are never given an official original height for Susan, as far as I am aware, but she isn't a huge amount shorter than Derek, and since 5'6" works out very neatly as precisely a ninth of 49'11", I used that.

_Bombyx mori_ is the scientific name for the silkworm moth. I figured that was appropriate for an insect from Japan...

BOB's chemical makeup makes no sense of course, especially as ostylezene isn't real. But benzoate and bicarbonate are, and I used those to add some more detail about his ingredients.

Incidentally, I changed the original honeymoon destination from Paris to Rome simply as I personally much prefer Rome. And it's (sort of) my story…

[**Minor revision: 10 June 2013**] I have changed this a little to add in the giant table and chair, now that I have decided that they were there to begin with.


	3. The Morning After the Day Before

An alarm was sounding. Susan gradually grew aware of it penetrating her sleep.

"Oh, Daddy, you wouldn't believe the weird dream I just had," she mumbled, only half awake.

The alarm kept sounding. Susan blearily opened her eyes, and gradually focused on the grey steel wall in front of her. She was confused. Grey steel? There was also a red flashing light. Suddenly, with a slight shudder, the entire bed started moving, folding into the sloping wall and unceremoniously dumping Susan off it. She hit the ground a couple of seconds later, waking her up fully. Now she remembered where she was, and groaned. The door slowly slid open, but Susan didn't move. Was there any point in even getting up off the floor? She didn't feel hungry. She was too depressed to have an appetite anyway. But as she lay there, she became aware of another pressing need.

She stood up slowly, and headed out into the common room.

"Good morning Ginormica," came Monger's voice as the general swooped down with his jetpack. "I trust you slept well."

"You really expect me to sleep well in this prison of yours?" Susan shot back. "Where's the bathroom?"

"You'll be reassured to know we have built one especially for you," the general said. "It was our top priority, for obvious reasons."

Susan followed Monger to another of the large doors.

"Touch that to enter," the general instructed her, indicating a small panel. "You'll note it is too high for the other monsters to reach. This should give you some privacy."

Susan pressed it with her finger, and the door slid open. Inside was a tiny cubicle, with a bench along the far wall. The bench had a hole in it covered with a large hatch. There was no toilet paper, however. Instead, she saw buttons marked Flush and Wash.

"Those are self-explanatory," Monger said. "You have a washlet bidet thingy, like those clever little Jap fellows use, since you are too big for normal paper. We'll try and get some later. Once you are finished, I will show you where you can shower."

"Fine," Susan snapped. "Now let me go in private, please."

Monger flew out, and the door shut. Susan sat down on the toilet, which felt rather chilly. The bidet at least worked as advertised. Once she was done, she realised there was no handbasin. Feeling rather grotty, she pulled up her pants and left the toilet.

"Everything working?" Monger asked.

"I need to wash my hands," she told him.

"The sink will come later," he said. "In the meantime, we've set aside an area for your shower. Come on."

He led her out of the common room, and along a corridor into a vast underground hanger. A huge aircraft was sitting there, but Monger headed past it to a section that had been curtained off with steel panels about forty feet high. There was no door as such, but the entrance faced the wall for privacy.

"What is this?" Susan asked suspiciously.

"The base's aircraft maintenance area. We have diverted part of the aircraft washing equipment to act as your shower. This is your cubicle. There is a block of soap, and we are working on shipping in shampoo and conditioner. I know how girls like to wash their hair.

"This? I have to shower in this?"

"I've had to shower in much worse," Monger told her. "At least this is warm. Now get in there and have your shower. You are running late for breakfast. Oh, and you must be out in ten minutes."

"Ten minutes?" Susan gasped. "I can't have a shower in just ten minutes!"

"That's all the hot water we have," Monger said. "If you don't finish in ten minutes, you'll have to shower in cold water."

"You're kidding me," Susan sighed.

"That's twice as long as the men here get," Monger said. "You're in the army now."

"I what?" Susan gasped, but he had gone.

Susan sighed. In the army? Her? Ridiculous. Monger was insane. The whole lot of them were. She was probably insane as well. Sighing, she entered the booth, and found that the privacy partition covered her to her shoulders. At least there didn't seem to be anyone else in the cavernous chamber. She took her clothes off carefully, and found the controls. Being an industrial shower, the controls were large enough, just, for her to use. There was a small block of soap, which looked like it had been formed from about a dozen or so normal bars all stuck together. She didn't even have a washcloth. How could she live like this? Why couldn't she go home? Her tears mingled with the shower water as she tried to get herself respectably clean using only her hands.

She quickly rinsed and shut off the shower just as the water started getting tepid, and looked around for a towel. She was not at all surprised to find that there weren't any. But to her surprise, vents in the walls started blowing out warm air, and she found that by turning herself slowly they did a fairly good job of drying her. Since they had been designed to blow-dry massive military transports, she realised, it was no wonder.

All clean, she stepped out, feeling better, or at least more refreshed, than she had since she had woken up the previous morning. She got dressed again, wishing she had some underwear, and headed back to the common room. To her surprise, she noticed that a chair and table had been constructed for her in the room, near the part of the wall the food came from. Susan had to admit that when the army wanted to build things fast, they certainly came through. Pity they were all so crude and, well, masculine, Susan thought. A few flowers, some paintings, a bit of carpet would be nice…

"Ah, good morning my dear!" came Cockroach's voice from far below. She looked down and spotted him, still carrying his computer tablet. She hurriedly stepped back, and managed to refrain from shrieking at the sight of him. "I have been up all night reading through these test results. Absolutely fascinating, you know."

"Anything useful?" Susan asked hopefully.

"Too early to tell yet. But do not despair!" Cockroach called out happily.

"Too late for that," Susan muttered to herself. She sat down on the chair, which was rather hard and cold—it looked like it had been bolted together from construction girders. There was a bowl of something lying on the floor beside the table, next to the smaller one.

"Why is my meal on the floor?" she asked, peering down at it.

"Monger explained while you were in the shower," Cockroach said. "The only access to your table for normal people is by one of the ladders on the legs, so rather than go to the effort of constructing some sort of hoist, the army decided it was easier if you simply pick up the plate yourself."

"Great," Susan muttered as she leaned down and picked the bowl up. She set it on the table, and then discovered that the chair was fixed. She couldn't move it forwards, so had to sit on the front end.

"What is this?" she asked, poking her spoon at the mush.

"Oatmeal," Cockroach said. "It's always oatmeal in the mornings for the base personnel."

"I prefer toast and marmalade," Susan commented as she took a mouthful. "Urgh. Tastes like baby food."

"It's not that bad," Cockroach commented. "I like mushed food myself. When it gets nice and rotten."

"I suppose a cockroach would." Susan sighed. Mush for breakfast, mush for lunch, mush for dinner. "At least I won't need to worry about gaining weight here, with no snacks to tempt me."

"You've already gained a lot of weight," Bob pointed out.

"Thanks for reminding me," Susan shot back, avoiding looking directly at his disturbing shape. It was still very weird to think of a blue blob of gloop as sentient.

"I told you, my dear—in relative terms, you've actually lost a lot of weight," Cockroach assured her. "I'm starting to figure out exactly why." He fiddled with his tablet a little. "Here, take a look."

He laid the tablet on his table, and Susan craned over to see what he was pointing at. It was very small and hard to make out, but looked like a CT scan of someone. Her, she assumed.

"What am I supposed to look at?" she asked.

"See how the image glows?" Cockroach asked her. "This shows that your entire musculo-skeletal system is being supplemented by these streams of … of what, we don't know. The medical staff just called it 'Element X,' which is very dull. It needs a proper mad scientist name. Something like… Technetium? No, taken. So is Promethium. Susanium? Too dull. Cochrochium? Maybe. Girnormicanium? Hmm. That could work."

"Too long," Bob said. "I'll never remember that."

"Oh very well," Cockroach sighed. "How about Applied Phlebotinium? Until I think of something better."

"Whatever," Susan said, a little annoyed. "So I've got this stuff inside me, right? And that makes me big?"

"And strong," Cockroach added. "Very, very strong."

"Really?" Susan looked at her left arm, the one she wasn't eating with. She didn't feel strong. She felt quite normal, in fact. Not that there was really any way to test it. Everything that wasn't tiny in here was securely fastened to the floor.

"The question is, how did it get in you, and how do we get it out of you?" Cockroach said, taking the tablet back and studying it. "I need access to the meteorite that hit you. Clearly it was no ordinary meteorite. For one thing, there was no impact crater. An impact that size should have blown away half of Modesto. Or several square miles of it at any rate. It must have been extraordinarily low density. Or there was something else strange about it. I can do nothing without a sample of the Phlebotinium."

"Monger said the meteorite was completely vaporized," Susan told him. Cockroach's antennae fell. "But they took all sorts of samples during my medical," she added. Cockroach's antennae stood up again.

"Then they'll be in the medical lab somewhere," he mused. "I need to gain access somehow…"

"Doc'll have you fixed up right in no time," Link assured her. "Want some of my seaweed?"

Susan shuddered. "Uh, no thanks. I'm full anyway."

"You haven't eaten all your breakfast," Bob observed.

"I'm not that hungry," Susan admitted. "I don't have much of an appetite. And I don't eat much in the mornings anyway. So what are we supposed to do all day?"

"I dunno," Link said. "We just kick back, do our things. Work out, read, sleep."

"Sounds very dull," Susan commented sadly.

"Oh, no no no no, not at all," Cockroach said. "They have an excellent library, we can access the outside world on the internet, watch films, go for walks. Invent things. Work on our hobbies."

"What's your hobby?" Bob asked.

"Uh, well, you know," Susan said lamely. "Shopping, hanging out with friends, Facebook, that sort of thing." Now that she thought about it, what did she and her friends do all the time? They always seemed to be busy doing things, but none of them were really that constructive. _Well, Susan_, she told herself, _you've got all the time in the world now. You could take up knitting, learn to cook—uh, no, scratch that last one—learn a new language—I could learn Italian, she thought to herself. Then when I get back to normal and Derek and I go to Italy, I could order food and go shopping and all that_. She felt herself getting weepy again, and with an effort controlled herself.

"How much of the base can we access?" Susan asked.

"The common room, our cells—I mean our quarters, the library, rec room, a few other areas, and topside," Cockroach said.

"We can go outside?" Susan asked, suddenly hopeful of escape.

"Don't imagine you can get out that way," Cockroach said. "There is nothing outside the base. I mean nothing. Mile upon mile upon of empty, featureless, scrubby desert. There is nowhere to escape to. Ghastly place. I never go there."

"I beg to differ," Link said. "There's a lake to go swimming in, for one thing."

"I like swimming," Susan admitted, somewhat nervously as she was aware that she didn't have her bikini with her.

"Well then," the fish-ape said cheerfully, "why don't we head up that way? Let's leave the Doc to run his tests, and you and me and Bob can head topside."

"Excellent idea," Cockroach said. "You three head off. I need to think."

"Wait," Susan said. "I can't go swimming, not like this."

Link looked up at her. "Like what? It's a pretty big lake, if that's what you're worried about."

"No, I mean like this," Susan said, gesturing at herself. "I don't have anything to wear, and I can't swim in this."

"Don't need it. Go in the nude. I do," Link told her, gesturing to his bare scaly body. "And it's not like we're in a city or anything. No one to see."

"Maybe later," Susan said, not really feeling up to running around naked outside. "Is there anything else we can do?"

"I can't think of anything." Bob noted. "Have you asked Insectosaurus?"

"Great idea!" Link enthused. "I'll properly introduce you to my best buddy here. Come on!"

He lolloped off, in a strange sort of half-bipedal, half-ape run, using his knuckles. Susan stood up and followed him. Link stopped at the far end of the room, and opened a hatch near the end wall.

"Let me see if he's awake," he said. "He sleeps a lot. Yep, green light. Motion detected." He pressed a switch, and to Susan's surprise, the entire wall slowly slid to one side, revealing a great cavernous room, filled with vegetation and lit from the top with very bright lights.

"Hey, Insecto!" Link called out.

There was no reply, so he called out again. This time a deafening rumble came back from inside. The bushes shook and waved, and to Susan's astonishment a gigantic fat furry bipedal caterpillar of some sort made its way out. That was what she had encountered briefly the previous day? It rumbled again when it saw Link, and headed towards him.

"How big is that thing?" Susan gasped. It towered above her, its head nearly brushing the common room ceiling. Now she knew why the room was built to such a scale.

"Insecto's a good 350 feet tall," Link explained. "Doc can explain it better, but he got hit by nuclear radiation from atomic testing in the South Pacific and grew to this size. He got captured by the UN and put here, but not until after he'd destroyed large chunks of Tokyo."

"Why not keep him in Japan?" Susan asked, unable to think of anything more sensible to say.

"You ever been there?" Link asked. "You think they have the room to house something as big as ol' Insecto here?"

"I guess not," Susan said, staring up at the huge creature. Link had jumped on it the moment it had appeared, and was now about halfway up.

"Who's your buddy?" he was saying to it. "Who likes their tummy rubbed?"

Susan had to smile at that, at the idea that a tiny creature like Link would even be noticed by the massive insect. But somehow he was—Insectosaurus was making a strange noise that sounded to Susan almost like a cat's purr, if the cat was the size of an office block and its purr was of a frequency so low as to be almost felt rather than heard.

"Pat him," Link urged.

Susan moved forwards, slowly stretching out her hand to gingerly feel the huge insect's orange fur. To her surprise, it was astonishingly soft. More like feathers than fur. Mesmerised, she buried herself deep in Insectosaurus's pelt, rubbing it.

Suddenly she was startled by a heavy pounding. She saw Insectosaurus was drumming one of his legs on the floor.

"That's good!" Link shouted down. "It means he likes you!"

"Ah, good," Susan said nervously. She had always been nervous around animals bigger than her, and insects. Insects bigger than her were something she had never seriously considered, outside of her nightmares. But then her life had been turned into a nightmare. "You know," she added, staring up at the strange beast, "I definitely think I like him too. He makes me feel small again."

The fish-ape swung down, and hung on the insect's fur just above the level of Susan's eyes.

"Woah, I've never seen your face this close," Link said.

Susan blushed. "I haven't even got any makeup on," she said.

"Yeah, you probably need it," Link said. "Your skin does look a bit dry. And wow, your pores are huge. I never realised how unattractive human faces were, this enlarged."

Susan went red, and hid her face in her hands. Suddenly she started sobbing, and fled back to the relative sanctity of her cell, where she flung herself on the floor, weeping. Link was right. She was a hideous, ugly, monster. Even aside from her size, which prevented any physical intimacy, now she knew her face would turn any man off once he got close enough. It must be like looking at someone with a magnifying glass: every blemish, every flaw in her skin, was now nine times bigger. How could she ever expect Derek to want her back?

Susan gradually stopped weeping, but remained on the floor, facing down. She cradled her head in her arms, and curled up as tight as she could. She wanted to sleep, to dream about happier days, of freedom, love, and the joys of being normal, but she couldn't. Instead, she found herself going over and over the events of her wedding day as best she could remember them.

* * *

**NOTES:** A shorter section this time, as otherwise it would be a chapter over 6,000 words long. The next chapter will be posted soon after this one. Monger's racial attitudes are meant to paint him as a man of the '50s, with that slight degree of condescension towards anyone who wasn't a (white) American. He's not nasty or anything, just a man of his time, using words that would not be PC in the 21st century. The real chemical elements I suggest as names are of course real. I rather like "Ginormicanium" as a name, though maybe, as Bob says, it is a bit long.


	4. Princess in a Dungeon

It had all started out so well. Her three closest friends had woken her up at the crack of dawn, with Lizzie taking a flash photo of her at the moment she opened her eyes. Annoying at the time, to be sure, but she could see the romantic side. Then there was Derek's wonderfully romantic bit on the morning weather report. That afternoon, at the church, she had been talking to Derek's rather annoying mother, and noticed for the first time her deformed thumb. Since his parents were divorced and his mother lived all the way over in New York, she had never seen it before. It had disgusted Susan at the time, but right now she thought that she wouldn't hesitate to trade a disfigured digit or two just to be under six foot.

To try and calm her nerves, she had gone out to the band rotunda in the church grounds, where she had often gone as a child when she was pretending to be a fairytale princess. There was a lovely view from here, and she had always found it romantic. Derek had caught up with her there, and Susan frowned slightly as she recalled his confession that he had swapped Rome for Fresno as their honeymoon. It had disappointed her, of course, but obviously his career was important, especially if he could end up being a foreign correspondent based in Europe. Somewhere really romantic like Rome or Paris. Thinking about it now, however, Susan felt a little miffed that he had not even bothered talking with her about it. But he was always so charming, so persuasive, that at the time she had merely gone along with it. He always knew what to do, what to say, to get others to agree.

And then things started to get hazy. She remembered panic. Panic and fear. She had seen a huge object hurtling towards her, had fled, and then the next thing she remembered was staggering up the hill to see her mother out looking for her. Then there was the service, and that fateful moment when Derek had told her she was glowing. The shock as she looked at her arm, from which a bright green light was shining. The rest was a blur, a confused series of snapshots. Screams, crashes, shouts, sirens, and a feeling of dread and blind panic.

"Susan? Susan? Are you all right, my dear?"

Slowly she became aware that her name was being called. She opened her eyes and saw Dr Cockroach standing a few feet away.

"Am I hideous to look at now?" she whispered.

"Not at all," he replied emphatically. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"Link," she replied dully.

"I thought as much," Cockroach said. "He's been acting very guilty the past hour."

"Good," Susan said, and turned over onto her other side. Cockroach scuttled around her head, and came as close to her face as he could.

"What did he say?" he asked.

"Oh, it wasn't really him," Susan admitted. "He just said I have huge pores and look ugly close up."

"Well, of course you—uh, I mean, of course he has no concepts of diplomacy, tact, or politeness. He says whatever he wants. What can I say—he's a monster."

"That's not funny," Susan said. "You're a monster, and you're very polite and charming. I'm a—a monster, and I know how to behave."

"You and I were both originally human, however," Cockroach explained. "We grew up in human society. Hawking only knows what society Link grew up in, and he hasn't exactly had the best environment since being thawed."

"Haven't you tried to teach him? Hasn't anyone?" Susan asked, propping her chin up on her hands, and looking at the mutated insect scientist.

"Oh my yes," Cockroach exclaimed. "You should have seen him when he was first brought in. Totally wild. Makes me feel rather like Professor Henry Higgins."

"Who?" Susan asked. "Another scientist?"

"Well, in a way," Cockroach said. "You know the story of 'My Fair Lady'?"

"Wait, wasn't that with Audrey Hepburn?" Susan asked.

"Yes, in a way," Cockroach admitted. "It started off as a play, however, by Shaw."

"By which shore?" Susan asked.

"George Bernard," Cockroach replied, raising an antenna. "Where _did_ you go to school? Never mind," he added, seeing Susan's expressive face start to crumple. "Come on, let's go find Link so he can properly apologise."

Somewhat reluctantly, Susan got up. Cockroach looked up at her towering high above him, and smiled. Gods but she was impressive. And beautiful. But utterly unattainable. Even if she could ever find him attractive, which was fantastically unlikely given his current appearance and morphological changes, the size difference meant they could never be physically intimate.

"No, Jaques-Yves," he scolded himself quietly. "Don't even think about it. Get your focus back."

Susan had not heard him. She was looking at Bob, who had oozed out of his room and was looking up at her.

"Hello, Bob," she said. She was starting to get used to the idea that an amorphous mass of goop could be sentient. It still felt a little weird, but then she had treated someone dressed in a Mickey Mouse costume at Disneyland as Mickey, she realised.

"Can't stop, sorry," Bob commented. "Gotta rush. Time's a-wasting!"

"Where's he going in such a hurry?" she asked Cockroach.

"Anywhere," the scientist shrugged. "Or nowhere. Bob's not picky."

"He seems very happy-go-lucky," Susan noted.

"I envy him. He's probably the happiest one of us here," Cockroach observed. "Come on, I think Link is in his cell."

Cockroach led the way to a small trapezoidal door, and knocked on it as Susan bent down so she could see in.

The door opened, revealing a large room with a pool filling half of it.

"Link?" Cockroach called. He scuttled over to the pool and banged on the side.

"Don't do that," Link growled, surfacing. "It echoes terribly. What do you want?"

"Susan's here," Cockroach said. "You owe her an apology, remember?"

"Oh." Link emerged, and padded outside. He looked rather bashful, and couldn't meet her eyes. "I—I'm sorry," he eventually muttered. "I was, uh, wrong to, um, say that. You actually look very, er, nice. If I was back on Coco Beach, I'd abduct you for sure!"

"That's not really something a nice girl wants to hear, you know," Susan pointed out.

"It's not? Uh, okay, in that case… I would never abduct you if you didn't want me to," Link attempted.

"Just apologise for calling her unattractive, you nong," Cockroach scolded him. "That's all."

"Uh, okay. Look, I am sorry. I'm just not used to girls. With the others here, I insult them all the time. And they insult me. It's just guy stuff. I didn't realise you were different. I don't get to talk to a lot of girls here, okay?"

"Well, uh, okay then," she said, and smiled slightly.

"Great, we're all friends again," Cockroach said. "I do so hate unhappiness."

"What about boredom?" Susan asked, sitting down on the floor as she was tired of bending over. "How do you deal with that?"

"I told you," Cockroach said. "Library, internet, research, study, experimentation. Oh, there aren't enough hours in the day!"

Susan looked at her fingers, stretching up to two and a half feet long, and sighed. "I don't think it would be easy to turn pages with these. Or use a computer."

"Hmm," Cockroach murmured, biting on one of his fingers. "I think I should get to work on a way to—ah, wait, I have it," he exclaimed. "Monger won't mind, and it'd be really easy to set up."

"What would?" Susan asked.

"A projector screen for a monitor, and a laser keyboard, since it can be enlarged almost indefinitely. We can set it up on the table, for example, and it would be just like using a laptop."

"I don't suppose online shopping is available," Susan said with another sigh. "This place might have everything you need, Doctor—or almost everything—but it has almost nothing for me. I can't go shopping, I can't hang out with friends, I can't go for drives, I can't play with my pussycat, I can't cook, I can't see my family…"

She started weeping again, and slumped against the wall. Cockroach and Link looked at each other, confused and embarrassed.

"Susan," Cockroach started to say.

"Please, I need to be alone for the moment," Susan said sadly. She hugged her legs tightly, sniffling.

"I should get back to work," Cockroach muttered. "Gotta talk to Monger about a few things."

"Yeah, catch yah later, Doc," Link replied as the scientist scuttled off. Link stood there scratching his head, not quite sure how to comfort a giant woman. He had to admit, seen from a suitable distance and not six inches away, she was rather cute. Even though she was a completely different species, and not sexually attractive to him, he could still appreciate her on an aesthetic level, like he had with the bathing beauties of Coco Beach all those years ago.

Just then there was a loud thump behind him. He turned and grinned at the sight of Insectosaurus looming high above him. But to his surprise, the giant insect bent down and used two of its arms to pick Susan up bodily and hold her tight against his furry body.

Susan had been startled and terrified when she suddenly found herself being picked up in the air, but the next moment she was buried deep in Insectosaurus's wonderfully soft fur, and could feel its deep low vibrations.

"He's trying to comfort me," she whispered, and started rubbing his pelt, content to be held. She closed her eyes, and relaxed. It was like when she was a child and her mother had comforted her. The same feeling of complete protection. She nestled into his fur, letting it envelop her. For the first time since all this had happened, Susan felt safe.

"Lunchtime!" came a sudden call. Susan found herself falling, at a strangely slow rate, before she hit the floor with a tremendous crash.

"Ow!" she said, rubbing her bottom. She looked up to see the general floating in his jetpack above her, and a helicopter, with a gigantic searchlight suspended below it, hovering in front of Insectosaurus. "What the hell? Monger? What are you doing to Insecto?"

"I told you, Ginormica, it's lunchtime. Insectosaurus needs to go back to his cell. He responds to bright light—it attracts him, like a moth to a flame," the general explained. He swooped down. "Cockroach says we can fit you up for computer use pretty easily," he said. "We are also working on improving your cell—I mean your room."

"What about a change of clothes?" Susan asked. "This jumpsuit is so shapeless."

"That is not a priority for you," Monger informed her.

"You mean I'm stuck with this?" Susan sighed. While not as into fashion as some of her friends, she still had a rather extensive wardrobe, full of some rather cute outfits. "Guess there's not much point in looking good here," she said sadly. "It's not like I'm going anywhere, after all."

"We should have a computer terminal ready for you by tomorrow, along with a television," Monger informed her, changing the subject. "Enjoy your meal. Lunch today is risotto."

He flew away, and Susan headed to her table. She bent down, picked up the bowl, and placed it on the table. There was also a sixty ounce jug full of water that was apparently her drinking mug now. She sat down and looked at the unappetising heap of food in front of her. At least it smelled normal, she thought. It tasted all right as well. It was just the texture that was a bit offputting.

"Ah, Susan my dear, glad to see you." Cockroach said in greeting.

"Hey, Susie," Link said, not looking at her face, but further down.

Susan frowned. Even if he was still embarrassed, he needed to learn that looking at a girl's bum could be—would be—taken the wrong way.

"My eyes are up here," she informed him gently.

"That's too high," Bob commented.

Susan frowned. She glanced down at the small table where the others had gathered.

"It is. You're right, Bob. Why don't you come up here with me?" she asked.

Cockroach looked up at her. "What do you mean?"

"It's a bit lonely up here," Susan admitted. "If you three eat on my table, we can talk."

"But what about our table?" Bob asked. "We can't reach our food from your table."

In answer, Susan reached down and picked it up, holding it carefully so as not to overturn the food on it, and gently set it on the top of her own table, across from her plate.

"Race you up!" Link called, and immediately vaulted onto the leg ladder. He was up it in seconds, but to his annoyance he was beaten by Cockroach, who ignored the ladder and simply went straight up the leg. Bob arrived, and then Susan placed their chairs around the table.

"Isn't this better?" she asked as they took their places.

"Indeed it is, my dear," Cockroach replied as he looked up at her face.

Susan rested her chin in her hand as she ate, looking down at her three new companions. They seemed almost like living dolls—or, in Bob's case, living Silly Putty. No, that Slime toy her cousin had, she realized. An amorphous goop. But silly slime. They were living toys to her. Cockroach was smaller to her now than her childhood Barbie doll. So would Derek be if she could see him. If she could see him…

"So, what do you think he's doing?" Susan asked her companions wistfully.

"Who?" Link asked.

"General Monger?" Bob asked.

"No, her fiancé, Derek, I would imagine," Cockroach corrected them.

"Yeah," Susan agreed. "Do you think he's trying to find me?"

"I honestly have no idea," Cockroach admitted. "I would assume he is going out of his mind with fear and worry, of course. I would."

"Oh, that's so sweet," Susan smiled.

"Well, assuming I was your fiancé of course," Cockroach said. "Or rather, if my fiancée had been suddenly abducted by men in black from the government." His antennae drooped. "I wonder how long my wife waited for me to return home that night…"

"Perhaps if we get out you can go back to her," Susan suggested.

Cockroach shook his head. "She'd be dead by now. I should be dead by now, by rights."

"What do you mean?"

"Cockroaches are great survivors," Cockroach explained, not looking at her. "Did they tell you when I was brought in?"

Susan shook her head. "Was it quite a few years ago?" she asked quietly.

"I was taken here in 1952," Cockroach explained. "I have been here for sixty years."

"Sixty years?!" Susan gasped. "They kept you locked away for sixty years? How awful!"

"It was at first, true." Cockroach sighed, in a strange sort of arthropodic sibilance. "I discovered one can get used to anything, however, given enough time. And, on the bright side," he added, "I have a great deal of freedom to carry out my experiments here. The army actually encourages me, unlike my old university. They were all worried about weaponizing things, how things could be used for war. The army welcomes that." Cockroach cackled madly.

"You—you create weapons for the army?" Susan gasped.

Cockroach looked at her. "Of course," he said. "However not many of them pass the field trials. Pity. They would revolutionize warfare!"

"Is that a good thing?" Susan asked. "You want to give the army more ways to kill people?"

"I want to give them more ways to not kill people," Cockroach corrected her. "The better the bombs and missiles, the fewer soldiers get hurt needlessly and the quicker the war ends. Look at World War One, then the Afghan War. Casualty rates are way down."

"But what about the civilians?" Susan asked.

"I was working on that when my little, ah, accident happened," Cockroach admitted. "I was trying to find a way to nullify the effects of atomic warfare. People used to say that the only creatures to survive an atomic war would be cockroaches. So I tried to combine cockroaches and humans. But I got a little too eager, a little too arrogantly cocksure, and tested it out on myself when the university ethics committee refused to permit my animal experiments. With the results you see today. Mind you, outside a few, uh, minor appearance issues, the experiment was a great success. I am immune to radiation, can withstand massive crushing weights, can eat anything, and have a greatly extended lifespan."

"What do you mean, extended?" Susan asked.

"I was actually born in 1912," Cockroach said with a touch of pride.

"1912?!" Susan gasped.

"That's nothing," Link said. "I'm twenty thousand years old."

"Yes, but you were frozen in ice for most of that," Cockroach said. "Doesn't count."

"Well, I count it," Link said. "And I've been here for more than fifty years as well."

Susan stared in shock. "How do you stay sane?" she whispered. "Wouldn't you lose your mind?"

"I did," Bob said. "I think I left it on my desk, but it's not there now."

"No, Bob, you never had a brain," Cockroach explained.

"I never had nothing," Bob complained.

"Oh knock it off," Link snapped. "None of us had. Well, except for the Doc here. He likes it here."

"You don't?" Susan asked.

"I'm a jock. A sporty type. What do I want to do sitting around all day?" Link groused.

"Oh come on," Cockroach said. "You get out plenty. Why, just a few months ago we all had to go to Europe on that mission to rescue the princess."

"You what?" Susan gasped. "You're joking, right?"

"Nope, we had to rescue Princess Mary of Denmark."

"A real live princess?" Susan's eyes bugged out. "This is the sort of thing you do?"

"Yes, it's very annoying," Cockroach said. "I was right in the middle of a very delicate experiment into the combustible nature of used glow-sticks and carbon paper. You see, it turns out that if you extract the carbon black from the paper using a-–"

"She doesn't want to hear about that, Doc," Link growled, pushing away his empty plate and swinging his feet onto the table. Cockroach pushed them off. "Yeah, this crazy Aussie chick. God she was a handful. Not a bad looker, mind, but she wasn't in a bikini. I like bikinis."

"Aussie? You mean Danish, right?"

"No, Australian," Cockroach corrected her. "The Crown Princess of Denmark is an Australian. She married a Danish prince."

"Wow," Susan breathed. "I didn't know that sort of thing happened. How romantic…."

"Derek not good enough for you?" Bob asked.

"No, of course not," Susan quickly assured him. "Derek's a prince to me. But you know how girls are—we all dream of becoming a princess, and living in a castle happily ever after."

"And instead you get this," Link stated baldly. "You're a princess in a dungeon. Locked up with the monsters. Well, I'm off to have another exciting, fun-filled afternoon of television soap operas. Catch you later."

He jumped off the table and was gone. Susan didn't notice however. She was staring into the distance, her eyes brimming with tears again.

"Don't give in to despair, dear," Cockroach said. "I'm working on getting you back to normal, don't worry."

"Haven't you ever wanted to get back to normal?" Susan asked, not looking at him. She wiped her eyes, but the tears kept coming.

"Well, these days I'm pretty happy with what I am," Cockroach admitted. "Once you get used to it, being a monster isn't all that bad, you know."

"I don't want to get used to it," Susan sobbed. "I want to go home. I hate this place!"

Angrily, she shoved her half-eaten bowl of mush off the table. It struck the smaller table and took that and the chairs with it, though Cockroach had leapt clear just in time. The bowl sailed across the room and struck the wall with a dull clang. Susan slumped across the table, burying her head in her arms.

"Every time I think I am coping I break down again," she whispered.

"Don't punish yourself." Cockroach patted her arm. "Come on, dry those tears. It's going to get better, it really is."

"Please, leave me alone," Susan said quietly. She stood up and headed back to her tiny cell, the only home she would know from now on.

Cockroach watched her go, his antenna slumped right down. He knew the first few weeks could be rough. But he had never seen anyone quite as upset as Susan. She still saw herself as a normal human being; that was obvious. There was only one thing he could do to help. Cockroach took out his tablet, and started flicking through screens of medical results, trying to find patterns in the data.

"She's not handling this well," came a low growl.

Cockroach looked up from his work. "Very astutely observed, Link. She's still doing better than you did. She hasn't killed anyone here yet."

Link's dorsal fin slumped in shame. "I never meant to. You know that."

Cockroach put his tablet down with a slight sigh. "I know. You were angry. We all were. Well, apart from Bob. Bob was just confused."

"He still is," Link commented. "How can we handle Ginormica? Shall I take her topside? A good swim might do wonders."

"At the moment, what she needs more than anything is hope," Cockroach informed him. "And I wish I could give her some. But I'll need more time to even begin to make sense of this Phlebotinium stuff. It's the most puzzling substance I have ever come across. Somehow, it affects matter on the quantum level. Ah, of course! I have it!" he exclaimed happily, and made a few quick notes.

"You found a cure?" Link asked eagerly.

"No, even better—a name! Quantonium!" Cockroach cackled. "What a wonderfully mad, scientific appellation!"

"Is that going to help you find a cure?" Link asked.

"No, but it'll make it much more fun," Cockroach grinned. "And without fun what's the point in science?"

* * *

**NOTES:** First, I'm glad people are reading this and appear to be liking it. It's been quite fun to write as well. Anyway...

Cockroach's first name is from the _Art of MvA_ book apparently-I saw a scan of a page online that gave that as his name, though how canon it is I do not know. While I am trying to avoid shipping, I still think that as Cockroach is, or was, a human male, he's going to find himself drawn to the first human female he's had any interaction with in decades. But he will remain a perfect English gentleman about it, and never act inappropriately. I was in two minds about whether to retain the canon length of time they've all been incarcerated, but decided I'd keep it for the time being. Even if it seems a little much.

However, I drew the line at sixty years of total incarceration in a prison. That would drive them utterly mad (again, that could be a fic, but a very very dark one indeed where Susan finds herself not only imprisoned for life, but with three lunatics. She's too sweet to inflict that amount of pain on...). So after much internal debate, and seeing how well they acquited themselves fighting Gallaxhar, I cannot believe they have just been sitting around doing nothing for decades. So I decided that they would be used by Monger from time to time for very special missions. (When they are mobilized for the robot probe, that's a bit different as it can no longer be kept under wraps and needs to be official.)

Anyway, we have now established the setting and introduction, and the story can move forwards...


	5. Cockroach to the Rescue

Susan was sitting in her cell, curled up against the wall with her arms around her knees and her head slumped on her arms. She had been like this for an hour, maybe more she thought. She had no watch, and there was no clock. No windows. Nothing to tell her whether it was day or night. Nothing but artificial illumination and regular mealtimes to give her an indication of whether time was even passing. How long could she cope with this? With this fear and worry? This isolation from friends and family? Would Cockroach even be able to find a cure? Would the government? Or did she already know too much to be allowed to go free? Why was she even here in the first place? Why lock up people who had done no harm? Okay, so maybe Bob and Insecto had done harm, completely unwittingly. Maybe even Link. But who had the Doc harmed? And she hadn't even given the chance to cause harm—as soon as she transformed she had been caught. How had they got there so fast with all the ropes and sedatives to capture her? What did the government know about that meteorite? What weren't they telling her?

Susan raised her head, seeing the tiny poster of the kitten in the tree in the gloom.

"I'm trying to hang in there…" she whispered to herself. Why had that poster been selected? To try and lift her spirits, the general had claimed. Hang in there must mean something was going to happen; that there was going to be someone to rescue her, like a fireman rescuing a stuck kitten. Maybe. Or maybe it was to try and prevent her committing suicide. No, that was not an option. Not while the tiniest ray of hope remained.

"Okay, Susan Murphy," she told herself. "Face the facts. You're in jail, unfairly imprisoned, and no one knows where you are. But they do know you are missing. Derek's got influence. He knows some people who know other powerful people. Your family's going to be looking for you too. All the wedding guests saw what happened to you, and I know Mindy at least would have been live-blogging, with her phone's camera videoing everything—the government can't keep that under wraps. People know what has happened to me. They know I have been abducted. The government just can't keep that a secret. They can't!"

She stood up and opened her door. Blinking in the light, she headed out to find either Cockroach or Monger. Not that she knew how to contact Monger. But she needed to find out how soon she could get internet access. Hopefully it would not be too censored.

"Bob!" she called, spotting the blue ooze slithering along the base of the wall.

"Bob!" the monster called back, looking around wildly with its one eye.

"No, you," Susan said. "I want to ask you a question."

"Questions are things you ask the Doc," Bob said.

"But the question I want to ask you is, where is the Doc?" Susan said, with a tinge of exasperation.

"Doc's always Double-El," Bob said. "Library or Lab. Gotta rush. Gotta find the Doc. Bye!"

"Library or lab?" Susan asked herself. "Where on earth are they?"

She looked around the common room, but couldn't see anything that fitted. She wasn't even sure where the door to his cell was. She sighed, and knelt down to check the tiny doors arranged around the bottom of the wall. They were unlabelled, which didn't help. She tried opening a few, but her fingertips were far too big for the tiny activation pads. Dispirited, she slumped face down on the floor.

Suddenly she felt a scurrying up her spine, and dashed her hand behind her back to shake it off. Cockroach flew into the wall and hit it with a thud before sliding to the bottom, his antennae twitching.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Susan said as she realised what she had done.

"No, no, my fault entirely, I assure you," Cockroach choked out as he straightened himself out. "Shouldn't have walked on you without asking. Bad form. Sometimes the insect part of me takes over. Bob said you were looking for me."

"He did?" Susan said, sitting up and crossing her legs. She leant forwards and rested her chin on one hand.

"Well, he actually told me I was looking for you," Cockroach explained. "But I realised what he meant. What can I do for you, my dear?"

"How's my computer coming?" Susan asked. "Will I be able to email my parents? Let them know I'm all right?"

"Tonight we should be able to set you up," Cockroach said. "The government regulates what you can access, but," he added, dropping his voice to a whisper, "I don't let that stop me!"

"Great!" Susan exclaimed. "Perhaps I can contact my parents."

"That's still a negative, Ginormica," came Monger's voice. "Cockroach, go back to your lab."

"Remember our secret," Cockroach said as he scuttled off.

Susan pouted. "Are you spying on me?" she asked the general.

"This room is under constant 24-hour surveillance of course," Monger stated. "Full sound, vision, and smell. We can tell when anyone so much as farts."

"Why on earth can't I contact my parents?" Susan asked him. "Even a murderer gets to have visitors, gets to have his family know he's alive. My parents must think I'm dead!"

"No, they do not," Monger said. "They have been told you are very ill, suffering from radiation poisoning from the meteorite, and need to be kept in strict isolation."

"And how long will they believe that?" Susan demanded. "A month? Six months? A year? How long can you keep this charade up?"

"Indefinitely," Monger replied. "The government is expert at lying to people. After all, most of them still think Elvis is dead."

"And so I just rot here for the rest of my natural life, even though I have done nothing wrong?"

"Not as such, no," Monger said, a little awkwardly. "We don't really have any facilities for dealing with monsters like you. There has never been any such thing as an innocent monster before."

"An innocent monster? We're all innocent in here!"

Monger shook his head. He landed his jetpack, and switched the motor off.

"You must remember, Ginormica, that most of the monsters in here are actually guilty. They have in fact killed people. Many. Even if not intentionally, like Insectosaurus, whose death toll was the highest. Link killed dozens of men sent to capture him. Bob absorbed, by which I mean ate, at least that many. I told you that monsters are a danger to society, and we know that because before they were captured, they were a real and present danger. We have file footage of their rampages if you want to see it."

"But what about me, general?" Susan begged. "I haven't gone on any rampages. I'm not a danger!"

Monger shook his head. "We couldn't know that when we captured you. All we knew is that you had destroyed a church, and people were panicking. That's how rampages start. And you would be a danger for two reasons. One is the panic that would spread when people saw you. We cannot guarantee that some people wouldn't try and kill you. The other is that you are literally too big and strong to live among human society any more. You are a menace even if you don't want to be. And that is why we must isolate you. For your safety, and for society's."

Susan's face crumpled. "But can't I even contact my family? My parents, Derek?"

Monger shook his head again. "I'm sorry. Not at this stage. The existence of monsters needs to be kept as secret as possible. We cannot risk information leaking."

"But how could you hide it?" Susan asked. "All these people that saw me, for example? Did you brainwash them all or something?"

"Not all of them, no," Monger explained. "The live video feed was harder to deal with, but we just leaked that it was a viral video created to drum up publicity for some bovine growth hormone or something. Those older cases, Link, for example, we just incorporated the news footage with new footage using actors and released them as films. The masses can barely tell the difference between entertainment and news anyway, so it wasn't hard."

Susan's face fell. "I understand. Thank you general," she said dully. She stood up, and slowly walked back to her room, her head hanging.

"You can't keep her imprisoned like this, Monger," Cockroach said sternly.

"I thought I told you to get back to your lab," Monger replied.

"I did. You didn't say I had to stay there," Cockroach said logically. "She isn't like us. She's not as strong. She's an innocent, a victim. You can't let her rot in a cell like you did us. I won't allow it."

"You won't allow it?" the general asked, amused.

Cockroach turned his huge mutant eyes on the short army officer beside him. "No. And if you do not make her happy, you will eventually make her angry. And you wouldn't want to make her angry. I presume you saw my calculations of her strength?"

"I did," Monger said quietly. "They were…impressive."

"They were," Cockroach agreed. "Be thankful she still has no idea of much damage she can do."

"I don't want to be cruel," the general said finally, after a long pause. "But I can't let her go. It's not my decision. I'm just your warden."

"You can make her more comfortable at least," Cockroach stated. "A decent place to live, for a start. Not this grey, featureless cell. Something to do all day—she can't do most of the things she used to, remember. Dammit, Monger! This is cruel and unusual punishment that would not be permitted for a mass murderer, let alone a young, innocent girl. So do something about it, before I do."

"You have a point, Doc," Monger said eventually. "I suppose we have enough budget for a bit of remodelling anyway. I just keep thinking about the last time we had to deal with a fifty-foot woman. You know how badly that ended."

"I do indeed," Cockroach reminded him. "But Susan Murphy is not Nancy Archer…"

* * *

Susan was lying in her usual position: curled up in a ball on the floor in a corner of her bare cell, trying to make herself small. Cockroach felt his heart sink as he realised how depressed she was feeling. Ripped from everything she had known; isolated, alone. He moved around so he could see her face, wider than he was tall, her cheeks wet with tears. She was the saddest thing he had ever seen.

"Uh, Susan, it's dinner time," he said gently.

"I'm not hungry," Susan replied, turning to face the other way. "Leave me alone."

"I have some news that might cheer you up," Cockroach said. "You're going to get better quarters. I'm going to help design something much more suited to your, uh, present condition."

"I don't care. What's the point? It's still a prison."

"I, uh, I also have a few ideas about getting you back to normal," Cockroach said. "I think I can start running some tests tomorrow."

There was a short silence. Then Cockroach saw Susan's huge head slowly move up, turning to face him, followed by the rest of her body.

"Normal?" she finally said, her voice breaking.

Cockroach nodded. "I can't promise miracles," he warned. "But we can start a series of experiments."

Suddenly he found himself being picked up, and swung around as Susan jumped up.

"Thank you!" she cried, hugging him to her breasts.

"Not so tight, please!" he called out, almost smothered by her cleavage. She stooped down and let him hop off onto the floor, then bent down and, to his surprise, kissed him lightly on his head.

"You're a lifesaver, Doc!" she beamed. "Come on, what's for dinner?"

"Minestrone soup and macaroni cheese," Cockroach said, breathing a sigh of relief. He was very glad his little white lie had worked. While nothing he said was technically a lie—Cockroach was very concerned about truthfulness, as honesty was the basis of all science—since he did have a few ideas, albeit wrong ones, and could start running experiments. But he knew they would not work, would only be a placebo. However, at this stage he decided he could do more for her emotional wellbeing than her physical one, so opted to give her hope. Give them all hope, in fact, by livening up their rather dull existence.

* * *

Susan placed her tray on her table, and the other monsters swarmed up the legs to join her at their own table. She took a big spoonful of soup, and smiled.

"Not bad for army food."

"Not bad? This is great stuff," Link said. "Not that I remember much of what I ate before I was captured. I had some nice snails in Paris though."

"Do these missions happen often?" Susan asked. "I'd love to go to Paris."

"Oh, every now and then," Link said casually. He looked at her. "You could be useful, you know. So long as you stay big and strong."

"I think I'd prefer to visit Europe normal-sized, thanks," Susan smiled. "Doctor Cockroach is ready to start some experiments."

"Well, be careful he doesn't accidentally make you grow a hundred feet tall," Link joked.

"Not a chance of that," Cockroach interjected. "Absolutely impossible without more Quantonium, you'll be glad to know."

"Very glad," Susan said with feeling.

* * *

The next morning Susan woke with clear knowledge of where she was. It was still horribly depressing, but she remembered that today was the day when Dr Cockroach would start his experiments to try and reduce her size. That alone made it worth getting up. Once she was smaller, the government would have no need to keep her locked up. She missed Derek so much, it was actually painful.

Just in time she remembered to actually get out of bed before it automatically retracted into the wall, but this time it didn't.

"That's a small improvement," she muttered as she got up. To her surprise, she saw another jumpsuit laid on the floor. "A change of clothes at last." She quickly stripped. There was also a pair of plain white panties, rather brief to save on fabric. "Still no bra, dammit," Susan muttered as she looked at her bare breasts. Each one was nearly four feet across. "I suppose Victoria's Secret doesn't make anything in a 300-D…"

Then she headed for her morning shower. Once that was taken care of, she headed out to breakfast.

"Good morning, my dear," Cockroach called out.

"Hiya Doc," Susan said as she picked up her plate and took her seat. "Link, Bob. How are you all this morning?"

"You seem rather chipper," Cockroach noted.

"That's because I could be back to normal by the end of the day," Susan said with a smile.

Cockroach's face fell. "I can't promise miracles, remember."

"No, but you'll get there. I believe in you," Susan assured him.

* * *

When the monsters had finished their meal, Cockroach began setting up his equipment.

"Now, my dear, if you could sit in that chair, and hold the ends of these two wires, like so. That's it."

"What will this do?" she asked a little nervously. "What do you think the chances of success are?"

"Remember, this is only the first day," Cockroach hastened to explain. "Chances of it working are…not good," he finished, not mentioning that chances of it actually working were zero. He had no idea what he was dealing with. And no time to even devise a decent experimental protocol. He had put together a simple Van de Graaff generator and Jacob's ladder in the hope that seeing sparkly things would make Susan feel that something science-y was going on.

"Ready?" he asked, hand poised over the switch.

Susan nodded, a lump in her throat.

Cockroach cackled maniacally as he threw the switch, sending a mild electrical current to the wires Susan was holding, and activating the Jacob's ladder.

"I feel a slight tingling sensation," Susan said. "Does that mean it's working?"

Suddenly there was a loud bang as the generator blew up. Once the smoke had cleared, Susan could see a soot-covered Cockroach wiping his face and muttering.

"I gather this wasn't supposed to happen," she said.

Cockroach shook his head. "Dreadfully sorry. You're not hurt? My fault for using the cheap pizza box. Knew I shouldn't have skimped."

"Never mind," Susan reassured him sadly. "We'll try again tomorrow. Thanks for trying, anyway."

She stood up, towering over the mad scientist, and headed to the corner, where she slumped down again. She stared out into space, and tried to keep the tears back. Of course it wasn't going to work, not on the first try. She just wished there was something to occupy her mind, take it away from her fears and depression.

* * *

Link padded over to Cockroach.

"Did that actually do anything at all?" he asked.

"I managed to measure her resistance to electrical energy," Cockroach said. "At least I think I did. I don't have enough juice here to do it properly. But she didn't even blink at the amount I sent into her body."

"You better not hurt her," Link growled.

"Wouldn't dream of it, my dear chap," Cockroach hastened to assure him. "But I did think she would feel a bit more than a mild tingle."

"So what's the next step?"

"More analysis. I haven't even finished analyzing the initial data, and I need to hack into the base servers again."

"Monger's going to catch you doing that one day," Link warned.

"And what? Throw me in jail?" Cockroach asked sarcastically.

"Take away your toybox privileges," Link warned. "No more dumpster diving."

"Good point. I'll be careful," Cockroach assured him. "Now let me concentrate."

* * *

Once they had finished eating, Monger arrived in his jeep and asked Susan to join him by the far wall. Cockroach followed, and then Link and Bob did as well. It was different, and different was good in this place. At the far wall, Monger opened a small door, and two uniformed soldiers pushed out a cart carrying an eight-foot long oblong box with switches on it.

"What is that?" Susan asked.

"Your new television remote control," Monger said proudly. "We whipped it up this afternoon from some spare parts and bits off an old truck."

"And some used chewing gum," Cockroach added.

"But where's the TV?" Susan asked, looking around.

Monger took a similar but much smaller remote from his pocket and pressed a button. A large screen dropped from the wall, and above it a long arm with a small module on the end swung out.

"This is a 220-inch screen, and the projector is on that pole," Monger explained. "Try not to bang into it too many times. We have a full satellite array at the base, so you have a rather extensive lineup of channels." He glanced at his watch. "Anyway, I have to go, so Cockroach can explain everything."

Handing the remote to Cockroach, he saluted and drove off. Susan waved briefly, then turned to the insectoid scientist.

"This was another of my ideas," Cockroach explained. He made a few adjustments with the remote. "There are a few bugs to iron out—like that one," he said, rapidly pressing buttons as the picture went green and purple, "but as a proof of concept model, it seems promising."

"Let me try," Susan said, picking up the larger remote. She flipped the one marked Channels. "Oh good, you get QVC! No, wait, I don't want to watch that," she added quietly.

"You couldn't even tell them where to ship things," Bob noted.

"No," Susan agreed. "Bit pointless now." She made a slight face. This was not the time to get depressed again. Not when Monger and Cockroach had gone to so much trouble to make her a TV. It even had HBO. She flipped through the channels, and decided to leave it on the Disney Channel. A completely pointless Donald Duck cartoon seemed like the perfect way to take her mind off her present predicament.

"Another simple addition," Cockroach said, pointing to a small box Susan had not noticed. He pressed a button on its side, and it fell open, revealing what looked like a grey sack inside. It expanded rapidly, and soon was a good thirty feet across, though only half-inflated.

"What is it?" Susan asked.

"An air chair," Cockroach explained. "Sort of like a beanbag without the beans. We converted a weather balloon. This one has been made of special strong fabrics to take your weight. Try sitting on it."

Susan gingerly lowered herself onto the saggy bag, and soon found that the best way was to recline against it sideways.

"Wow, this is so much better than just sitting on the bare floor," she said. She looked at the insectoid scientist. "You've done so much for me," she said. "The TV, a poofy chair, and working so hard to get me small again. Thank you."

"I, uh, er, don't mention it," Cockroach said, his left antenna quivering in embarrassment. "Really, it's nothing. I mean it."

"Hey, this is for us as well, right Doc?" Link asked, leaning back against the air balloon. "Can you put it on ESPN?"

"This is for Susan," Cockroach said. "If you want ESPN, watch your own television."

"That's small. I want to see it on the biiiig screen," Link whined.

"Maybe later," Susan suggested. She just wanted to relax and take her mind off things. And watching Donald Duck battle Chip and Dale was the perfect way to do it. It reminded her of Saturday mornings as a small child, safe and sound at home.

* * *

**NOTES:** Nancy Archer is, of course, the original "Fifty Foot Woman" Susan/Ginormica is based on. That one ended a lot less happily, however. The next chapter is almost ready as well.

**EXTRA NOTE: **I have made a slight correction to the timing-I originally had Susan watching her TV before she actually got it, thanks to an editing snafu.


	6. The Beautiful Beast

**6. The Beautiful Beast**

That evening after dinner they were all sitting around playing Charades. Susan had been reluctant, but Link had argued her into joining them. She didn't really feel like leaping around like some gigantic freak. Sitting with them was okay, especially at the table, but she always felt a little isolated when she was standing near the other monsters. However Charades was one of the few games she could join in, so, out of boredom, she had agreed. And it wasn't as bad as she had feared, since she was so bad at guessing that she had yet to have a turn. That didn't bother her that much, as just watching Bob contort his gelatinous form into all manner of weird and wonderful shapes was hilarious enough. For the first time since her capture, she found herself actually laughing.

Cockroach stole a glance at the huge figure near him, please to see her relaxed and enjoying herself for once.

"Oh, wait, wait, wait!" Susan suddenly called, leaning forward in her excitement. "I know, I know this one! 'Titanic,' right?"

"Bingo," Link grinned. "How'd you get it?"

"When you pretended to pose nude with a great diamond around your neck," Susan grinned. "I love that scene. She was so bold, so daring. So romantic."

"I'd love to draw you naked with a diamond around your neck," Link told her as Susan got to her feet and moved out into the room.

Susan flushed even redder. "Pervert! I'm not some sort of sex object for you!" she said hotly.

"I hate to break it to you, girly, but I'm just not into you that way," Link informed her.

"So why would you say something like that?" Susan shot back.

"Because you look beautiful," the fish-ape retorted. "I can think something looks beautiful even if I don't want to screw it."

"Don't be crude," Susan said. "It's not nice. So why did you attack all those girls back on Coco Beach?"

"Ah, that. Well, to be honest, it was mainly as it was so fun to chase them. They were much more fun to chase than the boys. And especially when I ripped their bikinis off. Boy did they shriek and scream."

"What a monster!" Susan gasped.

"Well, yeah," Link admitted. "You only just realised? Anyway, those days are over. Now I just appreciate a pretty girl like I appreciate anything beautiful. Without the screaming. The Doc taught me that."

"Good for him," Susan said emphatically. Now she had to think of something to mime. Something that wouldn't require her to leap about too much.

She shivered, and mimed gently falling items.

"Cold?" Link called out. Susan shook her head.

"Snow," Cockroach stated. Susan nodded. Then she pointed at him.

"Snowbug?" Bob asked. Susan shook her head again. She pointed again.

"Snowman?" Link asked. Susan bent down and gently picked Cockroach up, and held his coat between her fingertips. "Snowcoat?" the fish-ape asked.

"Snowsuit?" Bob asked. "Snowcloth?"

Susan shook her head to all of them. She stabbed emphatically at the coat, and then tapped her own teeth.

"Snow White?" Cockroach asked. Susan nodded enthusiastically, and set him down again. Then, still crouched down, she outlined the figure of a person with her hands, and then held her hand just a few feet off the floor, before holding up seven fingers.

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarves," Cockroach said.

"You win again, Doc." Susan said, and resumed her seat.

Now it was Cockroach's turn. He stood facing them, and made the sign for a movie.

"The Godfather!" Bob shouted out eagerly. Cockroach rolled his large eyes and shook his head. Then he pointed at Susan, and at himself.

"Susan and Cockroach!" Bob called out.

"That isn't even a movie, Bob," Link said. "Have you forgotten the rules already?"

Cockroach repeated his actions, this time adding in the curves of a woman, and then scowling and clomping around.

"The Iron Giant?" Susan asked. Cockroach shook his head vigorously.

"Pretty Woman?" Link asked, and Susan blushed. But Cockroach shook his head. He then repeated his actions.

"Uh, Desperately Seeking Susan?" Susan asked, it being the one movie she could think of with "Susan" in the title. But Cockroach shook his head again, and mimed the curves of a woman then pointed at her, then pointed to himself, and raised his arms, hands spread out like claws, and stomped around.

"Me, curvy, woman…" Susan thought aloud. "Woman…? Girl? Shapely? Pretty Woman—no, not that. Sexy? Curvy? Beauty?"

Cockroach nodded enthusiastically.

"Beauty and the Beast," Bob suddenly said.

"Got it in one, my translucent friend," Cockroach said happily. Bob slid out to the floor, and started to change shape.

But Susan sat there, thinking. Sure, it was flattering that he had chosen her to use as the example of "Beauty," since even modesty would permit her that, being the only female there, and it was similarly polite of him to use himself as the "Beast." But outside this small group of monsters, out in the real world, she was the beast now, she knew. Would Derek still be interested in a relationship with a woman nine times his size? She very much doubted it. Would anyone? What could she do about physical intimacy? Was she doomed to a life of lonely isolation, to grow old and die without anyone to love? So much of life was closed off to her now. Even the simple pleasure of holding someone, hugging them, burying yourself in their arms, was denied her now.

Before she could stop herself, she was weeping again.

"What did I say?" Bob asked, confused.

"Nothing, don't worry," Susan sobbed. "I'm sorry. I just get so depressed sometimes. Nobody will ever love me like this!"

"That's not true, Susan," Cockroach said. "We love you, your parents will love you, no matter what size you are."

"But what about Derek?" Susan whispered.

"If he doesn't, he's a bloody fool," Cockroach said strongly. "But I'm sure that everything that attracted him to you in the first place is still a part of you, no matter how big it is now."

To his surprise, Susan suddenly laughed. "Do you want to know what really first attracted him?" she asked. "My boobs. He likes big boobs," she explained, cupping her breasts. "So, do you think these would be big enough for him? Tits four feet wide? Can I attract him with these? What's the point? I'm a freak. A gigantic freak. Nobody is going to want me!"

Cockroach nearly choked. "You don't know. It's not all about size, you know. You still look lovely. And even if Derek doesn't, there are people out there who like tall, strong women. Amazons. And you, my dear, would be the Queen of the Amazons."

Susan smiled slightly. "That's so sweet of you to say that," she said. "I'm sorry to have ruined the game. Go on, Bob, it's still your turn. I think I am ready for bed, however."

"See you in the morning," Bob said as she headed off. Cockroach debated whether to follow her and try and cheer her up, but a pressure on his arm from Link stopped him.

"Let her go. She'll be fine. The more we try and make her feel happy, the more it might backfire."

* * *

The next morning, after Susan had finished breakfast, Monger came flying into the room in his jetpack.

"Good morning, monsters. Ginormica, we have finished adapting a laser keyboard and monitor for your computer terminal use. Please follow me."

With a glance at the others, Susan stood up and followed the flying general. Cockroach tagged along as well. The general led her to one of the larger cell doors, and opened it. Inside was a similar cell to Susan's one, but this one was equipped with a high table constructed near the bed, which therefore acted as the chair. A large monitor display stood on the table.

"Sit down, Ginormica," the general ordered. Susan did so, looking expectantly at the monitor. Close up, she could see it was made up of four large flat-panel LCD screens fitted together.

Monger flew down and landed on the shelf. "This is constructed of four 90-inch Sharp LED screens, giving you an equivalent normal scale monitor of nearly 20 inches. Press the switch beside the screen to turn the computer on. Good. Do you see that network of red lines?"

Susan gasped. A grid had formed on the desktop, outlining a standard keyboard in laser beams.

"You can type directly on this grid, and the lasers will read the position of your hands and input accordingly. That joystick to your right is your mouse. Internet access is filtered through our security, and for the time being you will not be able to contact your parents, your fiancé, or anyone on the outside. Social media sites are all blocked. However you will have access to news, Wikipedia, Google, and other standard websites."

"Very nice," Cockroach commented. He had scuttled up under the desk to join Monger. He danced briefly across the squares, typing out "Hi Susan" on the open Internet Explorer search bar.

"Very funny," Susan said, suppressing a smile.

"What about USB ports?" Cockroach asked the general.

"The actual computer is here," Monger said, gesturing to a box that looked tiny to Susan. "It is a standard military-issue Dell, so has the usual USB ports, but Ginormica will find those hard to use."

"I won't," Cockroach said. "She and I can share files."

"That is best done using the intranet dropbox cloud," Monger advised. "Are there any more questions?"

"No, thank you general," Susan said politely. "Thanks so much for this. Now I can finally see what's going on in the outside world."

"Just a word of warning—don't try to look up the events that ended your wedding and led to your current situation. We've been pretty thorough about removing them from the web."

With that, Monger flew off again, and Susan sighed.

"There may be ways and means around those blocks," Cockroach commented quietly. "And just because the army says they're removed all the information doesn't mean that they have. They make mistakes just like anyone else."

"So are you saying you could find this information?" Susan whispered.

"Possibly," Cockroach said. "The problem is, from this terminal, they'd know the moment I did find it. Never mind. I shall think of something else. But in the meantime, I have more experiments to devise, and you are free to see what is happening in the world again."

"Thanks, Doc. I don't know what I'd do without you here. I really don't," Susan admitted, smiling at him.

He looked up at her and smiled back.

"Thank you, my dear," he said, and bowed before scuttling off the desk.

* * *

A few days later Susan was lying back on her airbag watching television, her arms behind her head when Cockroach scuttled over.

"Ready for another experiment?" he asked.

Susan immediately turned off the television and got up. "What are you hoping to see now, Doc?" she asked as she followed him back to the main area.

"I have a few things I want to check out," Cockroach admitted nervously. "I need to get some more data on how you react to certain, uh, stimuli, for a start."

"That sounds a little dirty," Susan joked.

"In what way?" the scientist asked, looking confused.

"You know, stimulated," Susan explained, a little embarrassed.

"Uh, no, nothing to do with sexual stimulation at all," Cockroach said, feeling a little tense all of a sudden. "Now, sit down on the floor there, and let me attach a few probes to your skin."

Susan sat down cross-legged and watched the insect-scientist scuttle about. This time he had created something from what looked like an old packing crate, milk cartons, parts from a rusty bicycle, and more things that Susan couldn't identify. A mass of wires ran from it, and Cockroach attached a dozen or so of them to various parts of her body.

"Are you ready, my dear?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," she said, smiling encouragement.

"Throw the switch, Link!" Cockroach ordered, laughing maniacally.

"Look, do you really have to laugh like that?" Susan asked. "It makes me nervous."

"Sorry," Cockroach apologised.

"Now?" Link asked.

"Now."

The fish-ape threw the switch, and Cockroach frantically adjusted dials and levers.

"Excellent, excellent," he said, checking his tablet. "Some interesting data coming in here."

"Do you smell burning?" Bob asked.

Link sniffed. "Now that you mention it, I do," he admitted. "Doc?"

"Not my equipment," Cockroach said, quickly checking it.

"Ow! It's me!" Susan suddenly gasped, jumping up and batting at her hair, which was smoking.

"Susan, please calm down," Cockroach called, and signalled Bob. The blue mass stretched himself up and plopped on her scalp, smothering the cinders. Susan stood there, her white hair plastered under a runny blue mass, her eyes watering at this fresh disaster.

"Bob, get down from there," Link ordered. "Don't worry, Susan," he added. "There's only a few singed bits."

"I wish I had a mirror," Susan grumbled as she sat down again, feeling her hair carefully. She didn't know whether to cry at yet another misfortune, or laugh at its insanity.

"Everything will be all right, my dear," Cockroach said sympathetically. "I'm starting to understand some of the ways Quantonium works on your body, for one thing."

Susan's interest was caught immediately. "Any closer to a cure?" she asked eagerly.

"That will take a while longer," Cockroach admitted. "I'm dealing with a completely alien substance here. One that somehow rearranges the laws of physics on a sub-quantum level. It's very hard to conduct experiments at that level using old shoelaces and transistor radios. But don't give up, please," he quickly added, seeing Susan's lip tremble. "It's early yet. Rome wasn't burnt in a day."

"Well, keep trying, Doc, please," she said quietly.

* * *

**MORE NOTES:** It has always seemed a bit silly to me how '50s SF loved the trope of the alien or monster with the beautiful girl, which really makes no sense. Link should be no more physically attracted to human women than a human would be to a fish or ape. So I have emphasized that aspect in the Charades section.

While the movie shows Susan as being fairly modest in bust, I have boosted it mildly here to a D cup to give Derek another level of shallowness. This, incidentally, was a joke that wrote itself: I had not originally intended to have Susan's bust be noticeably big or small, in keeping with her "average" nature (though she's definitely better-looking than average, based on her friends in the movie), but when Cockroach said "I'm sure that everything that attracted him to you in the first place is still a part of you, no matter how big it is now," it just seemed like such a logical extension. And too much of a good thing for Susan...

Cockroach's comments are not, incidentally, meant to suggest he is into giants as a fetish, which apparently is a thing (as a Google Image Search for "Ginormica" will quickly reveal. Your retinas have been warned...). They're just him being polite and trying to make her feel better.

The laser keyboard technology is quite real. You can go buy one yourself. Since there is no feedback from the keys, it's not ideal, but makes scaling up simply a matter of positioning. I think I read somewhere that the military uses Dell. No biggie if they don't. But I suspect they would be conservative enough to use IE.


	7. Gilding the Cage

**7. Guilding the Cage**

A week had passed. Cockroach had continued to experiment, with no more luck than his first attempt. Sometimes Susan would be upbeat and optimistic, at other times depressed and withdrawn. The latter moods seemed to be lasting longer, Cockroach felt. But he was still completely clueless about how the transformation had happened and how to reverse it.

"I give up, Link," Cockroach said one morning in his lab. "This quantonium stuff has me beat. I still can't get access to her biopsy samples, and without those, I am like a blind man in the dark."

"Darkness doesn't matter if you're blind," Bob noted.

"Whatever," Link said. "Look, she's not going nuts: that's the important thing."

"She's not accepting her fate either," Cockroach pointed out. "She keeps on asking why she can't contact her parents, or Derek. She's also very, very bored."

"How long until the new quarters are ready?" Link asked.

"Tomorrow at the latest, Monger said. I've seen the plans. Made a few suggestions," Cockroach said. "They didn't like most of them. Fools! I'll show them all!"

"Calm down, Doc," Link said. "I'm headed topside for a dip. Anyone coming?"

"You going to ask Susan again?"

"Don't see the point—she never accepts. Just mopes around here all day."

"She's still self-conscious about swimming naked. Pity."

"I don't get it, Doc," Link commented. "She's got a pretty good body, right?"

"She's a goddess," Cockroach confessed.

"So why is she so worried about people seeing it?"

"It's how she's been brought up," Cockroach sighed. "The idea is that exposing your body is not modest, and nice girls are modest girls. And Susan is a very nice girl."

"So she is worried we won't think she is nice?" Bob asked. "That's nuts."

"That's about the size of it," Cockroach agreed. "Anyway, I need to get on with designing the protocols for my next series of experiments. I think I should start using rubber bands instead of twisty ties…"

"See ya Doc," Link said, and headed back out into the common room. Over in the corner he could see the huge form of Susan, sprawled on her airbag chair watching some period soap opera he didn't recognise.

"Hey, Susan!" he called when he got close. "Want to head topside for a swim?"

"You've asked me that twice already," Susan noted.

"So I'm asking you again. You could use the exercise."

"You mean you could," Susan retorted. "Oh, the hell with it, why not?"

"Huh? You mean you'll come?" Link asked, surprised.

"I've had about as much Downton Abbey as I can stand," Susan said. She switched off the projector unit, and got up. "Okay, how do we get outside?"

"I normally take the stairs, but you'll need the lifting platform," Link commented. "Follow me." He led Susan to one of the larger doors, which opened onto a short bare corridor, followed by a wide vertical shaft. "It's another former missile silo," he explained. "Hold it."

He pressed the call button for the lift system. "This used to be used to raise and lower giant missiles, Monger said. Now it's for conveying huge monsters."

"Like me?" Susan asked quietly.

Link glanced up at her. "Yeah, you were brought in on this. You wouldn't remember of course."

"No," Susan agreed, trying not to think back to her nightmare-filled awakening in this strange place. Even thinking about how scared she had felt was painful. Especially as she was still imprisoned. But at least now, thanks to Cockroach, she also had hope. And she had friends.

When the lift platform arrived, they stepped on it, and it carried them slowly up to a hatch at the top, which opened as they approached. Susan found herself surprisingly apprehensive about going outside. She had almost grown used to living without sunlight, plants, flowers, or the sky. It helped her forget—or not forget, as such, she reminded herself, but cope with—the loss of her freedom.

Then they were outside. Blinking in the unaccustomed glare, Susan found herself standing on the top of a wide low raised area, and she could see similar ones at regular intervals, stretching for about a mile in both directions. Off in the distance beyond them she could see a few mountains. Spaced around the raised earth area were a number of wide low buildings, with roads and paths connecting them.

"They look so small," she breathed, taking a careful step towards the nearest.

"Watch your step, Ginormica," came the familiar rasp of Monger. Susan turned to see him in a jeep by her feet.

"How did you know I—oh, never mind."

"That's right—we know everything you do before you do it," Monger replied. "Don't ever think we're ignoring you. Though technically you are required to request permission before heading topside."

"Request permission?" Susan asked, annoyed.

"Well, it's more like a notice," the general admitted. "Just so we can clear the area. We don't want you standing on anyone—with your weight you would instantly kill them. Sorry to put it so bluntly. And we need to file the right paperwork—the army runs on red tape. If you could just say, 'Permission to go topside?' that would be best. Please."

"In that case, permission to go for a swim, general?" she asked.

"Permission granted, of course." The general revved his jeep. "Don't be late to dinner, though."

He sped off, and was soon lost to sight. Susan stepped onto the road, and followed Link along it for a bit. She was very careful to watch where she was going. The thought that she could kill someone just by not watching where she was going was rather nerve-wracking. She certainly didn't want to be responsible for any deaths.

Link headed into the hills, which were covered with low scraggly vegetation. The weather was quite hot, and made her actually eager for a dip. She looked around, trying to see if there were any familiar landmarks. Not that she expected there would be—she had seldom even left California. The land was barren and arid, almost entirely treeless, with low steep hills and bluffs.

"I wonder where we are," she commented as they headed through a narrow pass. It was more pleasant beyond, in a small canyon with flowers and low trees, and interestingly-shaped rocks.

"No idea," came Link's voice from far below. "Doc reckons somewhere in the south-west, but he almost never comes up here."

Susan could soon hear the sound of a small waterfall, and in another few steps she found herself in a small nook facing a pond. The waterfall she had heard was trickling into it from a low cliff, and above the cliffs she could see the distant mountains, their peaks sparkling with the last of the snow.

"Beautiful," she sighed, forgetting for the moment the fact that she was a captive, cut off from friends and family and the only life she had ever known.

"It's all right. You should see Coco Beach," Link said as he dove straight in. Susan looked around, just to make sure there was no one watching, before she quickly disrobed and joined the fish-ape. The water was quite pleasant after the heat of the day, but she was a little disappointed to find that even at its deepest it only came up to her waist. She also discovered, to her surprise, that she could no longer float: her weight, though well below the level required by earthly physics, was still proportionately well above what it had been, and so she now sank like a stone. Most annoying, she decided. Still, she could manage to swim, after a fashion, and after a bit of that she was able to lie back near the bank, resting on the shallow bottom, where she could gaze up at the piercingly blue sky and pretend for the moment that all was right with her life.

After a while she felt something on her stomach, and soon saw Link pad between her cleavage. He lay down on her chest, and looked over at her.

"Sweet getting out, innit?" he grinned.

"I wish you wouldn't do that," she retorted.

"Do what?"

"Walk on me. I'm not a bridge. Or a boat."

"Well, how else can I talk to you?" Link asked. "Your face is pointing up."

"But my ears aren't. You could just talk to me from the water, you know."

"Oh, very well," Link acquiesced, and slid off.

"Urgh," Susan said, wiping her breasts. While she knew Link wasn't slimy, he had left wet marks all over her and it felt weird.

"So, enjoying your swim?" came Link's voice down by her right ear.

"I am, actually," Susan admitted. "Would you believe this is the first time I've ever swum naked?"

"How does it feel?"

"Pretty good, to be honest," Susan confessed. "Not saying I'd want to do this in public, of course. But out here, with no other human beings for miles… It's pretty relaxing. This is a really relaxing area, too, in its own way. It's got a sort of stark, empty beauty to it. Where on earth are we?"

"No idea, sorry. All I know is that it's not Coco Beach. Wish I was back there," Link sighed.

"What was it like? Apart from all the bikini girls, that is."

"A great sweep of pure white coral sand curving for miles, shaded by palm trees, and bordered by high headlands at either side. A shallow lagoon full of coral, fish of all varieties, Oh, and the girls! Just to run through a crowd of them, seeing them scatter, hearing them scream, ripping—"

Link's reminiscences were cut short as Susan pushed him underwater, holding him there for a minute before she let him up.

"I told you I didn't want to hear about you sexually harassing the girls," she said.

"Sorry, I got a bit carried away," the fish-ape confessed, pumping excess water out of his gills as he switched to lung breathing. He looked up at the sun, which was starting to throw long shadows. "We should head back soon," he noted.

"I guess so," Susan said reluctantly. She stood up, letting the water cascade off her, and found a conveniently large sunlit boulder to sit on.

"What are you doing?" Link asked, looking over at the huge naked girl.

"No towel," Susan explained. "I'll have to air-dry."

She rested her elbows on her knees and gazed out at the scenery. Link joined her on the rock.

"Look," he said nervously, hanging his head. "About the other day, when I said you weren't so good-looking…"

"Forget it," Susan said.

"Yeah, but I was wrong," he said. "You really are pretty cute. For a human, I mean. Sometimes I wish there was more than one of me. Preferably a female one."

"I guess I can understand, in a way," Susan said quietly. "I mean, there are plenty of guys out there, but I could never be, uh, intimate with them. Not like this." She gestured to her fifty foot body.

"At least you might still get back to normal," Link commented sadly. "For me, this is normal."

Susan looked at her small scaly friend, and felt a pang of guilt. Sure, it was hard for her at the moment, but she still had hope that she could return to her real size and her life would get back to normal. Link did not. He was the only one of his kind left, truly alone in this world. She knew he wasn't the hugging sort, but reached out to him, and gently placed a hand on his back. Link didn't shrug it off like he normally did, either.

* * *

After sitting quietly like that for a few minutes, Link snapped out of his funk and stood up. "Hey, race you to the top of the hill!" he called, and dashed off.

Susan laughed, and followed him. She had never actually run since her transformation—the Facility rooms weren't nearly big enough for that, for a start. Nor had she ever really been athletic. But to her surprise she was a lot faster now she was taller—each stride covered over forty feet, and she realised she must be moving well over fifty or sixty miles an hour. She overshot Link in a moment, and carried on up the low hill. It was an easy climb, even barefoot, as her feet were large enough to cope with all but the biggest rocks. In about ten minutes she had reached the summit, and could see for miles in all directions. Her face fell. Cockroach had been right. There was nothing. Old, worn rolling hills, covered in low scrub, slowly gave way to wide, featureless plains on both sides. On one side was a low range of mountains. She thought she could make out another off to the other side, but it was hard to tell as it was so distant. She could see the base where she and the others were incarcerated, and some dirt roads leading in and out, but apart from that there was no sign that human beings had ever been here. Susan felt very alone.

"I see what Monger meant about being escape-proof," she commented to Link, who was panting down by her feet after the climb.

"Damn you are fast," Link got out between breaths. "And I need more exercise," he added. "Yeah, we're in the middle of sweet sod-all. The only way in or out is to follow the road, but that way we'd be taken by the army again in a second. Heading across country? Which way? North? South? East? West? We'd die of thirst, probably. I know I would. Damn, I could sure use a beer right about now."

"They let you have beer?" Susan asked, surprised.

"Yeah, we get a small supply," Link said as he started back down the hill. "Not too much, mind you. You want some?"

Susan shook her head. "I don't like beer much," she admitted. "I only drink a little bit of wine, or cocktails."

"Snob," Link shot back.

"I just never liked it much," Susan replied. "Nor does Derek. He says successful people drink wine, anyway."

"What did you see in this guy?" Link called up.

"That's none of your business," Susan shot back, getting dressed again. "He's handsome, successful, eloquent, cultured—everything you are not."

"Hey, I'm a monster," Link quipped. "So are you. So have a beer with us."

Susan fell silent, and remained quiet for the rest of the walk back to the base.

* * *

"Enjoy your swim, my dear?" Cockroach asked as Susan came back into the common room.

"Yeah, it was okay," she said, and wiped her eye. She didn't want him to see her sad again. Instead she headed to her computer and did some mindless surfing for an hour or so. She had a look at a few of her favourite sites, but they seemed pretty pointless at the moment. She'd already spent ages in looking up stuff on Rome for her eventual honeymoon with Derek. So this time there wasn't really anything in particular she was looking for. Shortly after she'd first got internet access she'd tried to find out anything about her change, from people at the wedding, but either her internet skills were not good enough, or Monger was right when he said they had removed all the information. Looking up monsters was useless. A load of fairy tales. And as for government conspiracies—the sheer insanity made her head spin. Some of it might be true, but it was buried under an avalanche of the purest nonsense. Bored, she eventually started up an internet radio station before lying back down on the bed and closing her eyes and falling into a half-sleep, where she dreamed of Derek, only Derek had fins and antennae and sometimes his face looked like Link's and sometimes it looked like Cockroach's.

"You aren't out playing. Are you upset?" came Bob's voice, interrupting her dreams.

Susan cracked open an eye. It wasn't like Bob to come in and try and comfort her. Not that he was cruel or unfeeling in any way. He simply lacked a brain, and it usually never occurred to him to do so.

"Yeah, thanks Bob," she said. "I'm just a little depressed I guess. You'd think after a week I'd be used to it. But none of the Doc's experiments have worked, he still has no idea what happened to me, I miss my family and Derek and my friends, and I even have to wear this grey and orange prison outfit every single day. I dunno. It seems petty, but sometimes I wish I could at least dress normally."

"Well, so do I," Bob commented. "I want to wear all sorts of cute little outfits, but it never ends well. For me or for them. Why, just the other week I thought I would try wearing shoes. I even made feet for them. But it turns out I can't walk. I have to ooze. You can't ooze in shoes."

Susan giggled at that. "No, I guess not," she admitted. Then she propped herself up on her shoulders and looked down at her feet, waggling them gently. "I'd like a nice cute pair of pumps to replace these chunky sneakers, but I don't think Prada makes anything in a size million."

Bob immediately formed himself into a woman's high-heeled shoe. Susan laughed.

"A slime shoe? Thanks, but no thanks, Bob."

She sat up and stretched. There was a fresh jumpsuit in her room, so she decided to get changed.

"Why do you want Doc to make you human again?" Bob asked as she undressed. "It's fun being a monster!"

"I am not a monster, I'm a human!" Susan retorted. "At least…" She looked down at her gigantic frame, and sighed. "I guess maybe you're right. I'm not quite pure human either, now. I've got this stuff inside me, all through me. The Doc says it's in every cell of my body, fused at the quantum level, whatever that means. But I do know it means that I'm not fully human any more. Which is a scary thing to think about."

"Then don't," Bob suggested.

"Easier said than done, unfortunately," Susan admitted, doing her shirt up. "That's why I watch so much TV. For a few brief hours, I can forget my size."

"Bob, there you are," Cockroach said as he knocked and entered.

"Here I am," Bob agreed.

"You were supposed to tell Susan the new quarters are ready."

"Susan, the new quarters are ready," Bob told Susan.

"Uh, thanks Bob," Susan said, smiling. "Wait, new quarters? Are they ready?"

"They are indeed," Cockroach said. "Designed for your scale. I added a few touches of my own as well."

"Come on then!" Susan said excitedly.

Cockroach led her out into the main room, where Monger and Link were waiting as well.

"Good evening, Ginormica," the general said, saluting. "Would you care to step this way?"

"Sure thing, general," Susan said happily, throwing a casual salute back at him.

Monger led them through a short corridor, around the side of a missile silo, then into another corridor.

"We're on the other side of Insectosaurus's chamber," he explained as he opened a large door. Inside was a spacious living area, with couches built into the walls on both sides, just the right size for Susan, and along the far wall was a set of raised, staggered platforms which wrapped around behind the couches as walkways. At one end of the platforms was a large wooden frame with a variety of strange shapes for Bob to ooze around. On the other side of the central wall pillar was a small pool for Link to relax in. There was also a dining table positioned on the platform where Susan could sit on the end of one couch and use the platform as a table, and up a couple of levels was a large study area with a lab and a library of hundreds of books for Cockroach.

"That was my idea," Cockroach said, scuttling up to his new lab and letting out a maniacal laugh. "I designed the place to look like an underground lair, like all the best mad scientists have. Lots of levels and stairs, fancy angles, excitingly chunky beams!" He laughed again, even more insanely.

"Those smaller doors along the platforms lead to your new cells—I mean quarters, monsters," Monger explained, pointing. "Your quarters are in here, Ginormica," he added, opening a larger side door just outside the entrance.

Susan stepped in, and smiled. It wasn't very big, to be sure, but there was carpet on the floor, the walls were painted a pale shade of pink, and there was a real bed, with new sheets. Shelves, some small paintings, and a real desk and chair. It was just like a dorm room. There was even a small window.

"That's not a real window, Ginormica," Monger explained. "It's a projection screen linked to a camera topside. It can also be used as your personal television. Our psychologist suggested it might be better than a kitten poster. Make you feel less hemmed in-like."

"Wow," Susan breathed, speechless. "This is way, way better than before."

"And in here is your new bathroom," Monger added, opening another door in the room.

Susan took a look inside. "Wow, a mirror! A toothbrush, toothpaste!" She took a look at herself in the small mirror that stood above her new sink, and grimaced. "Ouch. I really need to wash my hair. Do you think you could get me some makeup as well? Lipstick, nail-polish? A bit of eye-shadow?"

Monger coughed. "Difficult," he admitted. "I'll see what can be done."

"Thanks, General. If you were bigger I'd hug you," Susan admitted.

Monger went red, and spluttered. "Hugging is not required. Just doing my duty, ma'am." He saluted, and flew off.

Susan looked at herself in the mirror again, trying to see if she looked different at all. More monstrous, or something. It was hard to detect any change really. Apart from her hair, which she admitted didn't look as bad as she had feared. She had always wanted to be a blonde, and now she was a platinum blonde, or even lighter. Some foundation and lipstick would be nice however, she thought. Ah well. Even being able to see her face again after a week was a major improvement. She ran her fingers through her hair, smoothing it, and headed out to the others.

"Well, what do you think?" Cockroach asked as Susan sat down at the new table.

"Well, it's still a cage," she admitted, looking around. "But at least they gilded it."

"Couldn't have put it better myself, my dear," Cockroach agreed. "Look at my new lab! The things I can create! And it's all thanks to you!"

"Me?" Susan asked, surprised.

"Yes, you," Cockroach informed her. "Monger's taken a real shine to you. Says you're his pride and joy. And he also feels guilty about keeping you here, since you haven't actually harmed anyone."

"Feeling guilty? Him?"

"Oh, you need to know him like I do to recognise it," Cockroach said. "But he definitely feels very guilty about having to incarcerate you."

"Good," Susan said rather bitterly. She looked around some more, and noticed a massive window on the far side of the main raised platform area. She could see vegetation through it. "Sweet, a garden," she commented.

"That's Insecto's room," Link said. "Now we can see him a lot more. Cool."

"Well, this place definitely seems a lot more acceptable," Susan decided. "How long until dinner?"

"Not long," Cockroach said. "Just long enough for me to work on some equations. If you will excuse me, my dear…"

He scuttled off, and Susan lay back down on the couch, her hands behind her head, just enjoying the cushioning. The mattresses on her old bed had been rather thin, and she had spent several rather uncomfortable nights, especially at first.

When the dinner buzzer arrived, she was pleased to see that her tray of food was now pushed out on the table level, saving her from having to bend down and pick it up each time. Unfortunately, there was no change in the actual food quality. It was still mainly just mush. To her surprise, however, there was a small vase of flowers on the tray as well.

"Oh, that's so sweet," she said, carefully picking them up. "They're so beautiful. So tiny and perfect…"

"Monger never sent me flowers," Bob noted, absorbing his meal in one go, plate and all.

"You'd only eat them," Link commented, chewing on a bit of raw squid with relish.

"So what's Susan going to do with them?" Bob asked.

"Put them in my room," Susan replied, setting the vase aside carefully. "I have shelves now, which is great."

"Your computer is being moved and hooked up as well," Cockroach noted. "Monger wanted to wait until you were out in the common room. And I'm working on a new experiment protocol," he added. "It's not quite complete, so we won't be doing any testing this evening."

"That's okay, Doc," Susan said, and to her surprise, she almost found herself meaning it. _No, no, Susan Murphy_, she told herself. _Just because you have a nicer prison doesn't mean you're actually happy to be here. You have a life outside, and you need to get back to it_.

* * *

After dinner, and the latest episode of her favourite soap, she decided to surf the net for a while. To her joy, she now had access to YouTube and other video sites, and so she decided to see what there was about her wedding, if any video had been leaked.

It didn't take her long to find it—the video had gone viral. Titled "Giant Wedding Disaster," it seemed to be taken from near the front row. Susan watched in silence as she saw her transformation from a third person perspective. There she was, standing at the altar with Derek, her in her lovely white dress, and Derek so handsome in his tux.

"Oh Derek," she sighed, then saw his horrified reaction to her glowing, saw herself starting to shine a bright greenish shade before, in a series of jerks, she suddenly began increasing in size. Susan was unable to stop watching as her clothes ripped off, leaving her naked. The video had been pixellated, to her relief, so her modesty was more or less intact. People were screaming, fleeing the church, and as she started to press against the church ceiling, the person filming finally rushed out, making the picture almost unwatchable until it finally stabilised, showing her standing in the ruins of the church, holding Derek.

Then it ended, flashing up a quick sign advertising _Monsanto Bovine Growth Hormone for Cattle: Bigger Udders Now_. Susan pouted at that—it seemed very unflattering. But more than that, the whole thing was very disturbing to watch. Seeing it on screen, from a third-person perspective, somehow made it all the more real. Especially as her own memories were still a little confused and hazy.

On an impulse, she searched for Modesto News on Channel 172. She didn't know if Derek had got the job, but even if he had, he wouldn't have started this soon. Indeed, there he was, doing a light human interest story as he wrapped up the weather.

"Is that Derek?" came Cockroach's voice.

"Doc, is that you?" To her surprise, a small screen showed up on her computer with Cockroach in it. He appeared to be at his own terminal.

"Of course, my dear," he said. "Just testing out a few capabilities. We can video-chat to each other like this."

"When it's so hard to go into the next room," Susan commented sarcastically. "And yes, this is my darling Derek. Isn't he handsome?"

"Compared to me, my dear, Monger is handsome," Cockroach said. "He certainly doesn't seem like someone who has lost the love of his life at his wedding."

"Well, Derek's a professional," Susan explained as she watched him joke with the other anchors. "He's not going to let his personal problems interfere."

And yet there was a slight tinge of worry as she looked at him laughing. Surely he really did miss her? He must. She missed him, dreadfully. Looking at him now, however, she pushed such worries out of her mind, and concentrated on how handsome and suave he was. How lucky she was to have him. He had been a star athlete at high school when she had first noticed him. She had spent many an afternoon standing on the side of the field watching him practice. She'd never made the cheerleading squad, but he'd still noticed her, eventually. And yes, it was her cleavage that had caught his eye, she remembered. But he was actually quite well-mannered and conservative with women, treating her like a beautiful princess, with himself the handsome prince. Flowers, chocolates, little gifts, clothes. He seemed to love making her look her prettiest. True, he wasn't the most considerate person when it came to her emotions, but that was just as he was a man.

Susan bit her lip and tried not to cry. Though it wasn't that easy. Thinking about Derek so much had brought up all sorts of emotions, in addition to love. Pain and loss were chief among them. Cockroach would fix it, she told herself. Cockroach would save her. He was so kind and sympathetic and intelligent. So amazing. For a brief moment she found herself wishing Derek was just a little more like Cockroach, before reminding herself he was just as amazing in his own way.

She lay on her bed quietly, trying to make sense of her feelings.

* * *

**NOTES**: The new quarters are, of course, the ones shown in Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space. I just moved up their construction a bit. We don't see Susan's room in that, but I have given her a much nicer one as well. She may or may not like pink walls, but Monger would certainly assume she did.  
Her inability to float is based on some very rough calculations/assumptions: since her weight is now around 175 times what it was, while her height and other dimensions are only 9 times, I don't think she would actually float (the calculations are VERY rough indeed of course).  
The scenery is based around the sort of Death Valley - Area 51 type sections of Nevada. Really empty land. I thought it was very nasty to keep the monsters underground all the time, so set the containment facility somewhere so remote there was no escape on foot. And since Area 51 is there anyway, it makes sense. Incidentally, I have called it "Area 52" rather than "Area fifty-something" partially as the latter is really just a one-note joke that won't work long-term, and partially as some of the merchandise, as well as TV Tropes, place them there.  
I just want to make it clear I'm not shipping Susan and Cockroach here. Susan is merely becoming aware that not all men are as arrogant and self-centred as Derek. The scales are starting to fall, in a very small way, from her eyes.

[**13 June 2013**] Made some minor changes in light of the photo on the hall wall at Susan's house which appears to show her and Derek at their high school prom together. So I have made them get together in high school, a change which I had reflected in the big breakup scene but not yet in this.


	8. Hated and Feared

**8. Hated and Feared**

She woke a little earlier than the alarm the next morning, feeling very rested. The combination of a softer bed and seeing Derek's face again had given her the best night's sleep she had had since being captured. She had a quick shower, and washed her hair. The limited hot water was still an issue, but Monger had explained that this was simply a result of their inability to heat that much water fast enough. It made Susan glad she had relatively short hair, however. There was a stack of a dozen tiny towels, the biggest made, which she used in succession to dry herself. Then she checked as much of her body as she could see in the mirror, and got dressed again.

Cockroach was busy at his desk, feverishly muttering to himself as he scribbled notes. Bob was lying in an amorphous mass in part of his jungle gym, and Link was kicking back on the platform by the table, reading the latest swimsuit issue of _Sports Illustrated_ for the tenth time.

"What do you want to drool over those girls for?" Susan commented as she added milk to her tea. Drinks, at least, had the same texture as when she was normal.

Link looked up at her. "Just taking a trip down ol' Memory Lane," he sighed, putting his magazine away as the breakfast chime sounded. A hatch in the side of the platform opened, revealing everyone's meal on trays. Cockroach finally put down his beakers and came down the steps.

"Good morning, my dear," he beamed. "I trust you got off all right last night?"

"Oh yes, fine, great. Loving the new bed. Great."

Cockroach took his seat and began chewing contemplatively on an old sock as he perused his tablet.

"So, Doc, what do you have for me today?" Susan asked.

"I'm still trying to work out why you aren't eating much," he said slowly.

"Not eating much? Doc, look at this plate!" Susan exclaimed, gesturing to her bowl of porridge. She was starting to acquire a taste for it now, in fact.

"Yes, that is a lot," he admitted. "But not as much as one would expect, considering your size and power. Somehow, the quantonium is…doing something. It's not being used up, at least not at any rate I can detect," he said. "So you aren't feeding off it. Yet I detect a high energy signature at a very specific frequency. It's generating energy, somehow. There isn't nearly enough energy inside you to account for this output. So the quantonium must itself be an energy source: the machine is its own fuel, so to speak. I wish I had a sample…"

"Can't you just use a needle?" Susan asked nervously, and was very glad when Cockroach shook his head.

"No, it's not flowing around you like blood. It's fused at the quantum level. We can detect its effects, but only indirectly: we cannot actually see it, so to speak. It's like trying to extract an egg from a baked cake. So much for my idea of examining your biopsy samples."

"So, no experiments today then?" she asked, her face a little downcast.

"Not yet," Cockroach said. "But soon," he hastily added. "I need to arrange the equipment. Get hold of Monger and arrange to get some more used coffee filters, spanners, bicycle gears—preferably Shinano—and a packet of paper clips. Oh, and some more uranium. I'm all out. I also need to calculate the power inputs so I don't set you on fire again."

"You can do whatever you need to me, so long as it doesn't hurt too much," Susan assured him.

"I could never cause you pain, my dear," Cockroach assured her.

* * *

Susan spent several hours that morning playing a board game with Bob. Cockroach had devised a special gripping tool for her to use that converted her hand motions into much smaller movements. It was fairly crude, being able to do little more than grab and let go, but it was enough for games like Snakes and Ladders, which Bob was a particular fan of. Susan won twice in a row, but one of the things she loved about Bob was that he was just as happy when someone else won.

"You don't have a malicious bone in your body, do you?" she asked, smiling at him.

"I don't have any bones in my body," Bob pointed out.

"Just as well," Susan grinned. "Or I wouldn't be able to do this. Ball!" she called, and Bob immediately formed himself into a sphere. Susan picked him up, and tossed him at the wall. He bounced off, hit the floor, hit another wall, and then Susan grabbed him and tossed him hard at the ceiling. Bob loved this game—being indestructible and invulnerable, it didn't hurt him a bit as he ricocheted around the room. Susan also found throwing him hard, or squeezing him between her fingers, a remarkably good tension reliever.

The lunch chime sounded. Today was risotto. Susan wondered if they were cooking things that were mushy to begin with, so she wouldn't lose too much texture. But then she rather doubted that the army was that considerate. No, it was probably just as these things were easiest to cook in bulk.

"I have one interesting fact for you, Susan," Cockroach informed her as he sucked on a bit of mouldy cheese. "It's about why you don't see yourself as big, but us as small."

"Isn't that because I'm just used to seeing myself as normal?" Susan asked.

"Not quite," Cockroach said. "It's all about depth perception, which is related to the view angle of your eyes. You normally see a building as tall, for example, because of the relationship between the distance between your eyes and the distance to the building. But your relative eye distance remained the same as you grew, so you still see everything with the same relative angle to yourself. Ergo, instead of you looking bigger to yourself, since you yourself have not changed size relative to your eyes, everything else looks smaller."

"You know, I think I actually followed most of that," Susan said with a tinge of pride.

"I keep telling you not to sell yourself short, my dear," Cockroach said. "Just because you've never had to use it, doesn't mean you don't have a decent brain."

"Bigger than yours," Link added with a grin.

Cockroach pouted. "It's all about relative size," he sniffed, pointing to his huge head.

* * *

After lunch, she was milling around, a little bored. Link was watching some sports game on her big screen TV and she didn't have the heart to make him change the channel.

"Want a swim?" she suggested, feeling a little hemmed in.

"Can't. The Packers are winning," he responded.

"Great," Susan pouted. "You know, I think I'll head topside for a spell anyway. I might do some sunbathing."

"Be careful," Cockroach warned from his lab. "You don't want to get burned."

"I will, thanks," Susan said with a smile.

She pressed the new intercom, and in a moment Monger's voice came out.

"Good afternoon Ginormica."

"I wish you wouldn't call me that," Susan pouted. "It's not my name."

"It is now," Monger replied. "Monsters are required to have monster names."

"Anyway, I'm heading up topside," Susan told him, not in the mood to argue. "Try to keep the traffic away."

"Roger that," Monger said. "Over and out."

Susan smiled briefly, then headed to the door. In a few moments she was standing blinking in the warm morning sun. Loudspeakers were broadcasting an alert:

"All base personnel. Giantess moving. Remain off the roads. Repeat, remain off the roads."

"Giantess!" Susan snorted. "I wish he wouldn't call me that!"

Today she felt like exploring the compound a little more. She stepped onto the road, following alongside the former missile silos. The road was lined with a number of low one- or two-storied buildings, which she towered over. There were a few jeeps and trucks scattered around, including some which she recognised as Hummers. Derek was keen to get one of these, she knew, but she had never seen one up close. Kneeling down, she saw that it was empty, so picked it up carefully.

"Seems a little small if you ask me," she said to herself. She peered into a window. "That is really cramped in there. Why on earth does Derek want one?"

"Ginormica, please do not play with government vehicles!"

"Ooops, sorry General," Susan said, putting the Hummer down as Monger brought his jeep to a halt. "I was being careful, however."

"Yes, I'm sure you were," he admitted. "But we'd prefer not to risk you breaking it. Those things are expensive."

"Yes, I know," she said. "Derek wants to get one, in black."

Monger snorted, but refrained from comment. "Where are you headed?" he asked.

"I was just going for a wander," she explained.

"Don't go too far," he warned.

"I'm not trying to escape," she said dully.

"I'm sure," Monger responded. "But it's a very long way to the nearest city, even with your legs. Base employees are flown here. Daytime temperatures regularly top three figures. There is very little surface water, and no shade. For your own safety, don't wander too far."

"I doubt your soldiers can lose a fifty-foot tall girl," Susan retorted. "I just want to find a quiet area to sunbathe."

"I suggest Runway Beta," Monger said. "It's not currently in use, and is two klicks thataway."

"Thanks, general."

"My pleasure," Monger said, saluting as he drove away. Not sure if she should return the salute or not, Susan just waved. She headed along the road he had pointed out, passing alongside what looked like base housing. A few minutes later she arrived at what was obviously the runway, which stretched out into a wide flat salt basin. Stepping over some low power lines, she strolled down the tarmac.

Wandering behind the vacant buildings, she found a large wooden platform that looked suitable to relax on. Not having a blanket, she checked the platform carefully for dirt, and removed a few suspicious bits before doing the same to her clothes and lying down on them carefully.

"It's so quiet," she whispered to herself. There was not a single sound. No engines, no wind, no birds or other animals, no trees moving, nothing. She had never been anywhere quite as silent. The sky was a cloudless blue, the ground a brilliant white outside the runway and terminal buildings. Susan found it incredibly peaceful, and needed to keep reminding herself not to fall asleep. She didn't have a watch, so checked the progress of time by the shadows, making sure she didn't tan too long.

After about half an hour of quiet contemplation, she turned over onto her stomach, and rested her head on her arms. The sun was wonderfully warm on her back. It was nice to be alone sometimes. She loved all her friends in the Facility, but there wasn't much privacy. It was like living with a family. She wondered what her parents were doing. At least they weren't told she was dead. She hoped Monger was keeping them updated, even with lies. Giving them hope, at least. She had no idea how far she was from home. It seemed likely she was somewhere in the Southwest, maybe near Death Valley, since she knew of nowhere else in America quite so empty. Hadn't she been told this was Area 52? She'd heard of Area 51 of course. Her friend Rene was adamant that that was where the government hid UFOs and aliens. "I guess that kinda makes sense," Susan muttered to herself. "After all, I know for a fact that they keep monsters at Area 52. I should ask Monger. He won't tell me, of course. Cockroach might know. You know, if this is near Area 51, that would make this Nevada. Assuming Area 52 is next to Area 51. That would mean Modesto isn't actually that far away. Just on the other side of Yosemite."

Not that she had any intention of trying to get there. In the first few days, she had desperately wanted to escape, to go home, but she realised now that she literally couldn't go home in her present state. No, her best hope was to wait until a cure was found and she could get back to normal. Hopefully that wouldn't be too much longer. Susan decided she might as well head back now, since her mind was moving in that direction anyway.

She was ambling along, not really paying that much attention, when she heard a piercing scream. Whirling, she saw three little girls in the yard of one of the base houses.

"Hello," she said, bending down to get closer.

"Help! A monster!" one of them shrieked, and they all dashed away.

"Hey, why are you running?" Susan asked, stepping carefully into the yard to follow them. It was her first contact with a human other than Monger since she had arrived, and she wanted to talk. "Stop, please! I won't hurt you!"

The three children continued running into the scrub behind the yard. Susan stepped over the house and tiptoed past the trampoline, then into the scrub where she could bend down without knocking something over.

Two of the girls carried on running, but one had stopped. Susan realized that she had fallen over, and must have grazed her knee or something as she was hugging it and crying in pain.

"There, there," Susan said gently. "Come on, I'll take you back home, and your mother can fix you up." Very carefully, she scooped up the crying child, whose bawls only grew louder.

The other two girls stopped running, and immediately headed back to the house, vanishing inside it.

"Where do you live?" Susan asked the girl in her hand. "Do you live in that house?"

The girl shook her head, but didn't stop crying.

"Oh come on, it's only a scrape," Susan said. "You're a big girl. Don't cry. Come on, I'm going to take you home."

"Heeellllp!" the small child shrieked as Susan stepped back over the house.

"I won't drop you, I promise," Susan said. Then she heard something whistle past her ear. Turning, she saw a middle-aged woman standing on the porch with a gun. The woman fired again, and Susan panicked. She took off down the street, running. People in uniform came out from other houses, some of them armed. Then an APC rolled into the street, its gun pointed at her.

"Put down your hostage and walk away," came an order over a megaphone. "You cannot escape."

"She's hurt, not a hostage!" Susan called, terrified.

"She's hurt the hostage!" someone shouted, and Susan felt a painful sting in her thigh a split second after a sharp crack.

"No, stop, please!" Susan begged as she dropped to one knee, her thigh throbbing. She could see blood seeping through her jumpsuit.

"Put down the hostage! Or you will be killed!"

"She's down, she's down!" Susan cried, letting the girl hop off her hand onto the ground. The girl immediately ran crying to one of the armed men. "Daddy! I was so scared! The monster was going to eat me!"

"No, no I wasn't!" Susan shouted. "I swear! Ow!"

Another tiny bullet had hit her thigh. "Stop! Stop shooting me! Please!" she begged, holding her hands in the air.

"What in the name of all in tarnation is going on here?!" came a familiar voice. "Lower your weapons! At once!"

"General Monger, sir!" The men all snapped to attention as the general's jeep skidded to a halt. "The monster was attempting to take a hostage, sir!"

"A hostage?" Monger asked. "Explain yourself, Ginormica!"

"No, it wasn't like that at all," she said, weeping in pain and fear. "I just wanted to talk to them, but she fell down, and I was going to take her home! That's all! I swear!"

"Where's the girl?" Monger demanded. One of the men came forward, carrying her.

"All right then, Little Debbie," Monger said in a gentler voice. "What happened to you?"

"I was playing with my friends, Mr General, when this monster came up. We ran, but I fell down and scraped my knee and she grabbed me. She was going to eat me!"

"No!" Susan cried. "Never!"

"Quiet, Ginormica," Monger ordered. "Now then, little…what's your name? Amy? Amy, why did you think the monster was going to eat you?"

"That's what monsters do," the girl whispered.

"Look at her," Monger said. "Do you really think she would eat you?"

The girl peered past him to look at the giant woman, who was sitting on the ground sobbing in pain and despair.

"Uh, maybe…not," she admitted. "I guess she doesn't look that scary like that."

"Take her home and fix up her knee, sergeant," Monger ordered. Then he turned to the rest. "The next time any of you, ANY of you, ever fires on one of my monsters again, I will skin you, barbeque your bones, and feed you to them! What in God's name were you thinking?"

"It…we thought it had a hostage, sir…" one of the men said.

"She's a she, not an it, lieutenant," Monger said. "Did you even stop to assess the situation? No, of course you didn't! You panicked! You pack of trigger-happy knuckleheads are all confined to barracks for a week!"

When the men had left, Monger radioed for a medical team. The ambulance arrived quickly, and two doctors cut her jumpsuit trouser leg off.

"You're lucky you're built tough," Monger commented to the weeping Susan. "Even a ninth the normal size, these things can still do damage. Don't worry. They're only flesh wounds. No major vessels or nerves hit."

The doctors gave her a local anaesthetic, and quickly found the bullets. Susan was silent the whole time, only whimpering a little. Monger remained by her side, observing. Finally it was done. Susan was able to hobble to her feet, and limp slowly back. She had to make it all on her own, as there was no one she could lean on.

"You see now why we cannot let you go free in your present state?" Monger asked quietly as he drove beside her.

The giantess nodded sadly, tears silently dribbling down her cheeks.

* * *

Eventually she made it back to the common room, and Monger came out to talk to the others once he had got her settled in.

"She'll be all right," he told Cockroach and the others, who had been waiting outside in the common room, all very concerned. "There's a doctor in with her now—a real doctor, Cockroach, not one of you fancy-pants PhD types."

"I'll have you know that a PhD is not only a higher degree than an MD, but the original form of the doctorate—from the Latin _docere_, to teach. It is merely a courtesy title for physicians," Cockroach huffed.

"Yeah, well, you don't teach either, Doc," Monger sneered. "Anyway, he examined her, but apparently her wounds are already almost healed, thanks, we guess, to the quantonium in her. It doesn't make her invulnerable, as such, but does increase her skin toughness and healing ability as well as her physical strength. Let her rest for a few hours and she'll be right as rain."

He saluted, and drove off.

* * *

Cockroach hurried in to see Susan the moment the physician had left, and found her sitting on her bed, her face streaked with tears.

"Uh, how are you my dear?" he asked. "Well, well, your first angry mob. Don't worry. Monger says you're going to be all right."

"No I'm not," she whispered. "I'm a terrifying monster. Children run screaming from me. People want to shoot me, kill me."

"I'm afraid that comes with the territory," Cockroach explained. "You have to—"

He was cut off suddenly as Susan dashed into her bathroom weeping, and slammed the door in his face. "Go away!" she shouted.

"But I—"

"Go! Away!" came an answering shriek.

His antennae drooping, Cockroach did so.

* * *

Susan did not come out for dinner that night. Or for breakfast the next morning. She ignored all knocks on her door. The other monsters were starting to get very worried, especially Cockroach. He had already had to fend off several increasingly prying emails from Monger. While he wouldn't normally dream of entering her room without permission, he was very concerned about Susan's emotional state.

So he scuttled off, and pushed himself through the narrow air vent at the base of Susan's door. Being half-cockroach had its advantages, he reflected.

Susan's room was dark. He could barely make her out, lying on her huge bed, her sheet pulled up over her head. Cockroach scuttled up to the shelves at the head of her bed.

"Uh, Susan," he began quietly. There was no response. "I'm so sorry for what happened. And for not being as sensitive as I should have been. I'm glad…we're all glad, very much, that you're all right."

Susan just hunched up even more under the sheet.

Cockroach paused, sure he was not helping matters at all. The only sound was Susan hiccupping from crying so much.

"I know you don't want me here," he said eventually. "I know you want to be left alone. But we're starting to get very worried about you, and Monger is threatening to investigate."

The sheet moved, but Susan remained hidden under it.

_At least she hasn't told me to get out_, Cockroach reflected. "What can I do to make you feel better?"

"Kill me." Susan's voice was barely audible.

Cockroach's heart stopped. "Please... please don't say that."

The sheet moved again, and Susan stuck her head out, her eyes and nose red from weeping, her skin pale and her cheeks hollow.

"I mean it, Doc. I want to die."

Cockroach trembled. "No, no you don't," he assured her. "We'll get through this together. I still have some more tests to run…"

"Tell me, Doc," Susan asked in a quiet voice. "Please, if you're my friend, be honest. Are you any closer to finding a cure? At all?"

Cockroach was silent for a long time. Then he moved down to stand on Susan's bed, near her face where she could see him easily.

"No," he eventually admitted. "I'm sorry."

"I thought as much," Susan said. "Why did you do them, then?"

"I was trying to give you hope," Cockroach confessed. "I would have done anything to make you feel better."

"I thought I was coping," Susan went on in a low voice, barely above a whisper. "I thought I was strong enough to deal with this. That I would be home soon. Back with Derek. Now I know I will never leave. I am imprisoned here for life, a freak, unable to live a normal life. I am a mutant, a monstrosity. Children scream in fear when they see me. How can I ever live normally again? No. My life is over. Death is my only escape."

If Cockroach had still been able to weep, he would have. How could he possibly offer her any comfort?

"I don't know what your life was like before you came here," he began slowly. "I have been here so long that I barely remember mine. I am thoroughly institutionalized. But I am sure your life was better than it is here. I know this isn't exactly paradise. I know that for you, your world has fallen apart and buried you under its ruins. And I know it's not much comfort to say this, but… your arrival has been the most wonderful thing that ever happened to us here."

Cockroach grasped her finger, the only part of her hand he could hold, and clutched it tightly.

"I remember the day you arrived. All we knew is that a new monster would be joining us. You have no idea how excited that made us. But we were also very nervous of course. After what unfortunately happened at Link's arrival, new monsters are always released into the common room alone. But we were so curious. So we all hid in my cell and watched. What would the new monster be? Then the big door slid open, the sixty-footer, and we knew we had something huge. What manner of fearsome beast was about to emerge? We were very worried. But then we heard a cry of fear, and saw a foot the size of Link, then another, followed by legs as long and graceful as willow trees, as the wall pushed out this sweet innocent young woman, with pure silver hair and the biggest blue eyes I have ever seen. Living with monsters, I sometimes forget that there are some very beautiful people in this world. But you looked so scared, crouching like a cornered animal, your eyes wide with terror. My heart went out to you. Then you stood up, and I gasped. You were magnificent; an awesome sight.

"We were all very shy of course. We should have come out and introduced ourselves when you came to our door and bent down to try and see who was whispering. It was Bob, by the way. He thought you were just a giant pair of legs. But I lost my nerve. You were so sweet and beautiful. What would you say when you saw my grotesque face? Eventually I realised it was my duty, and that your comfort mattered more than my fears of how you would react. Of course," Cockroach added with a slight laugh, "you reacted by trying to squash me. But ever since then, you've been the most wonderfully warm, caring person. So considerate, so kind-hearted. I wish you could understand the happiness, the excitement, you have brought with you. You are a breath of fresh air, a ray of sunshine in our dull grey existence. I don't know how I—how we would carry on if you left us. I know you don't need us. But we need you. Desperately. Please, Susan. Come back to us."

There was a long silence. Cockroach could see Susan had started weeping again. Eventually she curled her long fingers around his body, holding him gently. She remained like that for a long time, eyes tightly shut. Finally, she slowly opened them. She sat up even more slowly, letting the sheet slip down, and kissed Cockroach on his head.

She wiped a tear from her eye, and smiled at her friend. "You've been so nice to me. I… I don't know how I'd have coped if I hadn't found you here."

Suddenly she found her eyes brimming over with tears again.

"Oh, I say, please don't cry," Cockroach said. "It'll be all right."

"I just wish I could hug you properly," she said. "I wish… I wish I could be hugged by someone. Sometimes… I just need to be held…"

"Ah, there's always Insecto," Cockroach suggested.

"He's sweet, but I just want to be held in somebody's arms, like before…."

She fell silent for a bit, then blew her nose on a bit of paper four feet wide.

"Would you like to come out and have some lunch?" Cockroach asked quietly. "You haven't eaten for nearly a whole day."

"I guess I haven't had much of an appetite," Susan admitted. "But I suppose I could have some tea or something. I just wish I had some chocolate…"

"I shall ensure you do," Cockroach promised. "On my honour as an Englishman, I will get you chocolate."

Susan smiled weakly, and stood up, still holding the tiny insect-man, and headed out to the new common room.

"Susan, doll, great to see you again," Link said, with perhaps a touch too much enthusiasm as he caught sight of her.

"Thanks, Link," Bob said. "I missed you guys."

"Uh, that's my line," Susan said gently as she slid into her seat.

"We think Bob is actually a low-level telepath," Cockroach explained as Susan deposited him gently on the platform. "My theory is that that's how he compensates for not having a brain: he borrows other people's. It's really quite fascinating. I'd love to run some experiments on him." He gave a short maniacal laugh.

"Let's not talk about that," Susan said. "Let's not talk about experiments for a couple of days, okay?"

"Noted," Cockroach said quietly. "Sorry."

The rest of the day passed quietly, and to Cockroach's relief, Susan made no further mention of suicide.

.

* * *

**NOTES**: Fear not, things will get a lot better in the next chapter, don't worry. Instead of the movie's relatively simple roller-coaster of hope, despair, hope, despair, hope, I've gone for what I hope is a much more complex and deeper emotional journey. I wanted to destroy her down to the ground before I started rebuilding her, stronger than ever.  
I found a discussion of the depth perception issue on a website, and paraphrased it for this, as I think it's interesting. I have not seen the movie in 3D, but in 2D it does suffer a little from us seeing Susan as "normal" much of the time, especially when scale is hard to determine (like in the facility, or with non-humans like Bob and Link. This is one slight mis-step the movie made: by limiting her interactions with humans, it's easy to see the other monsters as small rather than her as big). I would imagine Susan would have similar issues, seeing herself as normal and everything else as shrunken.  
The Hummer bit is just shoved in there as another way to show how shallow Derek ultimately is, since a Hummer is about the ultimate posermobile.  
People with PhDs can indeed get a little miffed that people hear "doctor" and assume physician...  
Cockroach's memories of her arrival are inspired in part by some wonderful imagery in "As Cold as Summer" by CrazyAcorn. I wanted to add my little homage to that. Susan's statement about "I don't know how I'd have coped if I hadn't found you here" is taken from the finale of M*A*S*H, and seems to me to be a wonderfully deep statement about the power of friendship in adversity.  
Anyway, the next chapter is going to be more positive...

[**13 June 2013**] Found a really silly editing mistake: "quiet as silent" for "quite as silent." Also changed Monger's "tenth the size" to a more accurate "ninth the size."

[**20 June**] More editing snafus fixed. I swear, there are little language gremlins that change things around while I'm not looking...


	9. Small Mercies

Three days after her breakdown, Cockroach called Susan over. It was after dinner, and she was sitting at her table reading a book. Since her fingers were too big to turn the pages easily, she was using an automated page turner Cockroach had assembled from some old windscreen wiper motors and the innards of a clothing iron. This made it a bit slow, and not as satisfying as curling up with a book on a sofa, but Cockroach had assured her he was working on a way to do that.

"What is it, Doc?" she asked.

"I got it, Susan! It's here!" he cried excitedly, giving one of his trademark maniacal laughs.

"Got what?" she asked, confused.

"General!" he called into his cellphone. "Bring it on in!"

"Roger that, Cockroach," came Monger's voice.

A few seconds later, the main door opened, and a small electric truck rolled in. On its bed it was carrying a silver brick, about five or six feet long and half as much wide, and a large round tub that looked a bit like a small spa pool.

"Go ahead," Cockroach said, grinning insanely. "It's all yours!"

Curious, Susan got up and walked over to the truck. The driver hopped out and saluted. Susan returned the salute, a little awkwardly, and bent down to examine the objects. She picked up the silver brick, and discovered the silver was actually a thin layer of tinfoil. She carefully peeled back a corner, and gasped. It was chocolate. A huge slab of milk chocolate.

"Oh my god! My god! You did it! Doc, you're a genius! Oh, this is wonderful! Oh, and what's in this? Oh. My! God!" Susan squealed, unable to believe her eyes. "Chocolate ice cream!" She snatched it up, and dashed back to the table.

"This is the best present anyone has ever got me! Ever!" she squealed, grabbing Cockroach and hugging him tightly as she kissed him repeatedly on the head. Not for the first time, Cockroach was glad he was an uncrushable cockroach mutant. He also appreciated the kisses very much, even if they did almost engulf his entire head.

When he was finally released, he headed back to his lab area, but remained watching Susan as she inhaled the scent of the chocolate bar. Then she snapped off a small corner, and popped it in her mouth, letting it melt.

"Oh that is soooo good," she sighed. "Wherever did you get such a huge bar?"

"It was melted down and moulded from a shipment of normal bars," Cockroach said. "The hardest part was getting the army to purchase decent quality chocolate, not their usual cheap muck."

"However you did it, you are a life-saver," Susan informed him emotionally, biting off another small bit the size of a man's hand and sighing in ecstasy. Then she carefully wrapped it up again, and set it aside.

"Don't you want it?" Bob asked from his jungle gym.

"I do, I do," Susan said emphatically. "But I don't want to eat it all now."

"So stay away Bob," Link warned the blue blob. "This is Susan's treat."

"Uh, would you like some. Link?" Susan asked, wondering if she should be generous.

"Not for me, thanks," Link replied. "That's human food. Chocolate doesn't agree with my digestive system."

"It's all yours, Susan," Cockroach explained. "And I think I can arrange for one bar per month."

"That's more than I have normally, actually," Susan admitted. "Especially lately, since I wanted to lose weight for my wedding. Guess dieting isn't going to help that now."

"No, the Quantonium seems to keep your body in isostatic nutritional balance," Cockroach noted. "In other words, any excess calories are burned off by the Quantonium, and any deficiency is supplied from the Quantonium."

"Does that mean that if I starve the Quantonium will be used up and I can be normal again?" Susan asked.

"If my theory is correct," Cockroach admitted. "But it would take a very long time, during which you would be continuously hungry."

"How long?" Susan asked, with a little less enthusiasm.

Cockroach made a few rough calculations. "Hard to say. Anywhere between two and ten years."

"Two and ten years?" Susan gasped.

"Sorry, forgot to carry the decimal. Twenty and a hundred years."

"Oh." Her face fell. "Guess I won't be taking that route."

"Unfortunately, no," Cockroach agreed.

Susan sighed, then opened her ice cream.

"I need to eat this before it melts," she said, digging in with her special super-sized spoon.

"Of course." Cockroach agreed, making a note to ask Monger about getting Susan a fridge and freezer so she could have cold drinks and ice cream whenever she liked.

"One thing about ice cream and chocolate," Susan said between mouthfuls, "they taste just as good however big you are. Doc, you are amazing. I love you so much right now."

"Thank you," Cockroach murmured. He knew she only meant it platonically, but it was still awkward. He was starting to feel things that he had not felt in half a century. Things that he thought he could no longer feel. And that would end badly for all concerned if he ever acted on them.

* * *

Something even better happened a few days later. Susan was lounging on the couch watching a movie from the base's collection when Monger arrived. He still didn't knock, which Susan found rather rude. He flew in with his jetpack, and hovered about five feet away.

Susan casually returned his salute. "What is it, General?" she asked.

"Got some good news for ya, Ginormica. I've arranged for you to contact your parents," he informed her with a grin.

Susan's jaw dropped. She stared at him for several seconds.

"Contact…my parents? You mean talk to them?"

"That's an affirmative. There will be certain restrictions, however. The circuit will be monitored and subject to a two-second delay, so you will not mention any details of your condition or current location. If you do, they will be censored. Any attempt to do so will mean you will be confined to solitary for a week. Sorry to be so harsh, but it is vital that you understand this, and under no circumstances compromise the security of this site. You will be given a list of topics that are not to be discussed."

"Well, what can I talk about?" Susan asked, a little miffed.

"Feelings, emotions, all those girly things," Monger told her. "You are to tell them that you are being treated well, that the search for a cure is ongoing, and that security issues prevent any visitors. You may ask about friends, family, your fiancé, your pets, and so on."

"Will it be video?" Susan asked hopefully. If she could only _see_ her parents and Derek, that would be so wonderful…

Monger shook his head. "Audio only. For the moment, at least," he added, seeing Susan's face fall.

"When is it?" she asked, trying to hide her disappointment.

"This evening, at six. We have already informed your parents, who will be waiting by the phone."

Monger saluted and flew off, and Susan hugged herself with happiness, blinking back tears.

* * *

A little while later a list of Dos and Donts was delivered, printed out on a roll of paper large and thick enough for Susan to handle easily. Her face fell as she scanned the list. It seemed as if there were nothing she could talk about safely, even the weather, as it might contain hints about where she was. She was terrified of being sent to solitary, so made sure she concentrated on the short list of safe topics. That she had friends here was allowed, but they must be presented as normal humans. That she could take walks outside was allowed, but no descriptions of the landscape or any hints as to where she was. No mention of Monger by name. He was merely "the commander." She was, however, allowed to mention her size, as her parents had seen her grow with their own eyes. It would have been difficult to cover that one up. While they had been banned from discussing it with outsiders, that did not apply now of course, for which Susan was very grateful.

The rest of the day passed agonisingly slowly for Susan as the clock slowly ticked around to six. She found herself quite unable to relax, or concentrate, or anything. She read and re-read the instructions, and planned out what she could say, what she wanted to say.

Finally the time arrived. Monger flew in, and told her to wait by her computer. Susan eagerly dashed in, finding a microphone and speakers had been set up. She sat down, and pressed the switch marked _On_. Once that was done, a green light flashed on, and for the first time in nearly two weeks Susan heard her parents' voices.

"Susie Q! Is that you?" her father exclaimed.

"Daddy!"

"My darling! It's so good to hear your voice again!" her mother added.

"Mom, Dad, I've missed you so much!" Susan said, trying not to weep and not entirely succeeding.

"How are they treating you, my darling?" her mother asked.

"Yes, what is going on?" her father added. "They've kept us completely in the dark since, uh, that thing happened at the wedding. All we know is that you've been taken to a special facility for observation."

"I'm fine, don't worry," Susan said. "I've, uh, I'm getting treated. Did they tell you what was wrong with me?"

"They gave us some story about radiation from a meteorite," her father said. "It's not serious, is it?"

"We couldn't bear it if we lost you," her mother added. "The government man said you weren't in any danger. Is that true?"

Susan nodded. "No, I'm not sick or anything. They need to find a way to remove it so I can come home again."

"That's good to hear," her father said. "Well, that you're not in any danger or anything."

"No, no danger. I'm being treated well. Movies, TV, I have a nice room. I go swimming. I've made some really good friends. Though I miss you all so terribly. But how are you? How's Derek? Is he there?"

There was a short silence.

"I'm sorry, honey," her father said. "He had to work. It's the evening news hour, after all."

"Apparently it's not a good look to take time off," her mother added.

"Oh." Susan slumped back against the chair. "I'd, you know, kinda hoped he'd be there. But yeah, this is right when he'd be at work I guess."

"Of course. We'll tell him you give him your love."

"How's he coping?" Susan asked.

"You know him," her mother said. "Not big on showing his emotions. He's dealing with it by throwing himself into his work so he doesn't have time to worry. He got the job in Fresno, by the way. He starts next week."

"Wow, that's great news," Susan enthused. "Tell him…I love him and miss him terribly. And that the moment I get out, I mean get better, we're having our wedding. And this time we are definitely going to Rome. I've been practicing my Italian."

"Will do, honey," her father said.

"So what else has been going on while I've been away?" Susan asked, and for the next fifteen minutes her mother dominated the conversation. But Susan didn't mind. It was enough to just to be able to talk with her parents again, to hear their voices.

Eventually Monger returned to warn her the half hour was almost up.

"I have to go now," Susan reluctantly said.

"Remember, honey, we love you and are praying for your quick return," her mother said.

"Seconded, my little Susie Q," her father added. "We miss you a lot."

"I miss you more than I can say," Susan admitted. "Give my love to Derek, and tell him I hope he can be there for the next call."

"Will do, love," her father said.

"Okay, I have to go now," Susan said. "Love you all!"

"Love you—"

The connection went dead. Susan stared at the wall for a while, and then started to weep again. She curled up on her oversized chair, her lip trembling.

Monger saluted her awkwardly and flew out.

"Give her a bit of time," he told Cockroach, who was waiting outside Susan's door. "Just make sure she's out for dinner."

But Susan was out before that. After about ten minutes her door slid open. Her eyes were a bit red, but she had a small smile on her face.

"Are you all right, my dear?" Cockroach called up.

"I'm fine," she replied. "I just don't know if I'm happy or sad. It's very confusing."

"Don't think about too much," Link added, padding over to her. "I'm going to visit Insecto. You coming?"

"Sure!" Susan said happily. Burying herself in the giant insect's soft fur was one of the best ways to beat her feelings of isolation in this new existence. It was like having the world's largest stuffed toy, or a cat the size of an apartment building.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**: I had originally had Susan unable to read "normal" sized print with her giant eyes, thinking it would look too tiny. But then I thought about raptors like eagles, which have huge eyes (relatively) for extra-acute vision, and wondered if Susan's vision would be likewise more acute. I even wondered if it would really improve her night vision. But in the end I decided I just didn't know, and kept her vision normal (which actually means relatively more acute I guess). Quantonium is pretty amazing stuff, after all...

I decided to let Susan be able to contact her parents finally. It seems to me not only to be rather nasty to not let her, but doesn't make much logical sense either. The monsters are contained to ensure no one knows about them. But not only did Susan transform very publicly, she has parents who saw her do so. It didn't seem like there would be much of a problem in letting them know she was fine, and being treated, as that's exactly what they would hope. Obviously it took Monger a while to realise this as well: the "innocent monster" being a new thing for him. And I have made him be extremely careful about what, exactly, Susan can say.

Anyway, it's a short chapter, but designed to give Susan some good things at last after all she has been through. Though I am torturing Doc just a little... In the next chapter we return to the "main" story line.


	10. Susan's Triumph

Another week had passed, and life at the Monster Containment Facility in Area 52 had settled down to a steady rhythm. Susan had to admit, despite her loneliness and sadness about being kept from her parents and Derek and her friends, things could be worse. In a way it was wonderfully relaxing to not have to worry about the little things, like grocery shopping, preparing meals, cleaning, laundry, working, commuting, and all the other minor annoyances of real life. It was like an extended vacation in some respects. She spent her days watching TV, surfing the internet—when it was not blocked entirely, as it had been for the past 36 hours—watching movies on Netflix, reading a lot more than before, talking with her parents twice more—though she was disappointed that Derek had only shown up once, and that only for five minutes in which he didn't stop talking about his new job—playing with Insecto and the other monsters, going swimming with Link—she was now tanned a nice golden colour, which made her silver hair seem even brighter—and of course the odd experiment with Cockroach. Ones he assured her were not just placebos this time. He was in the middle of a new one now, which he seemed to be more than usually confident about.

"They called me crazy, but I'll show them! I'll show them all!"

"Doc, I'd prefer it if you didn't do your mad scientist laugh while I'm hooked up to this machine."

They were in the old common room, which Monger had insisted Cockroach use for his experiments after he had managed to explode part of the couch. Susan was sitting in a chair, with a dozen electrodes fastened to her scalp as Cockroach fiddled with levers and dials from various household appliances all attached to an old pizza box. Then he stopped, thought for a second, and ripped out the aerials from Link's radio, sticking them in the slots of an old toaster he had modified with a smidgeon of uranium.

"Dammit, Doc, I was listening to that!" Link growled.

"Just be a jiffy, old chap," Cockroach said soothingly.

"Susan, you've let that quack experiment on you for over a month," Link pointed out, still miffed.

"I'm not a quack! I'm a mad scientist! There is a difference," Cockroach hastily retorted. "Quacks have MDs, and I have a PhD!"

"Guys, what choice do I have?" Susan pleaded. "If he can make me normal, or even just able to fit under a door again, I can get out of here, get back to the life I'm supposed to have. I should be in..."

"Let me guess: Fresno?" Link commented sarcastically.

"Well, Fresno is just a stepping stone," Susan said defensively. "Next stop, Milwaukee. Then New York, then hopefully..."

"Yeah, we know. Europe," Link shot back.

"Throw the switch, Doc, but don't do the laugh," Susan ordered, annoyed with Link's pessimism. True, none of the experiments had ever worked before, but that didn't mean they never would. And they were one of the few things that gave her hope for the future.

"Now you're going to feel a _slight_ pinch in the brain," Cockroach warned her, and started to laugh maniacally. He cut it off immediately. "Sorry."

He threw the switch. Susan felt her entire body shake. It felt as if her teeth were coming loose. Then there was an almighty bang, and she was thrown off her chair. The room was filled with smoke, and it was several seconds before she could see again. Then she saw Cockroach's face filling her vision.

"Susan!" His relief at seeing her unharmed was palpable.

"Am I small again?" Somehow, this one felt different.

Cockroach hesitated for the briefest moment.

"I'm afraid not, my dear. In fact, you may, er, actually have grown a couple of feet."

Susan felt her head. Her hair was sticking up on end, and crackling gently. Still, it was a relief that that was all Cockroach had meant. She hoped: she realised that she probably wouldn't be able to tell if she really was a couple of feet taller…

"That's okay, Doc. We'll try again tomorrow," she said, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside him. She gently patted him on the back with her fingertips, making sure not to knock him over.

"You really don't get it, do you?" Link snarled. "No monster has ever been let out of here!"

"That's not true! The Invisible Man was," Bob pointed out.

"No, he wasn't. We just told you that so you wouldn't get upset. He died of a heart attack 25 years ago," Link said sadly.

"No!" Bob went very translucent from shock.

"Yeah... in that very chair. He's still there," Link teased. "You see what I'm saying? Nobody's leaving! Nobody's ever going free!" he finished in frustration.

"Good news, monsters! You're going free!" came Monger's rasping voice suddenly.

"Until today…" Link added mechanically, as he saw the general drive into the room in his jeep.

"What do you mean, we're free?" Cockroach demanded.

"Are you going to let us go home?" Susan asked eagerly, unable to believe her ears.

"Not likely. What's the catch?" Link asked suspiciously. "There's always a catch."

"A few days ago, an alien robot landed on this planet," Monger explained. "In the United States, naturally. It was first spotted at midnight a few days ago by a couple in, er, romantic embrace. No one knows what it is or where it came from. All branches of the military were immediately mobilised. However our peace overtures, as well as our peace symphonies, peace rock songs, and peace theme tunes, were ignored. Despite heroic efforts by the President personally, the robot is currently en route to a major city, and is impervious to any of the conventional weaponry we can throw at it. So we are going to throw unconventional weaponry at it: you monsters."

"Wait, let me get this straight, Monger," Link interjected. "You want us to fight an alien robot and save a city?"

"And in return," Monger announced importantly, "the President of these United States has authorised me to grant you your freedom."

There was a stunned silence.

"I can't believe it!" Susan gasped. "Soon I'll be back in Derek's arms..." she paused, and looked at her five-foot hands, "...or he'll be in mine." She felt a twinge of concern about what he would think when he finally saw her, but was too excited to worry much—it was enough that they would be together soon. As Team Dietl, there was nothing they couldn't cope with.

"I can't wait for spring break back at Cocoa Beach," Link smirked. "Just freaking everybody out. Non-violently, of course," he added with a glance at Susan. He lay back and cradled his head on his arms, like he was already at the beach.

"And I'll go back to my lab and finally finish my experiments," Bob crowed.

"No, that's me, Bob," Cockroach pointed out gently.

"Then I'll be a really giant lady," Bob said cheerfully.

"That's Susan, Bob," Cockroach pointed out.

"Fine. Then I'll go back to Modesto and be with Derek," Bob said happily.

"That's still Susan, Bob," Cockroach pointed out in an annoyed voice.

"I think I, at least, deserve a chance to be with Derek!" Bob said loudly, but the others ignored him. Bob's low-level telepathic abilities tended to overheat in moments of extreme emotion.

"General, I think I'd prefer to stay here," Cockroach said. "I'm working on some sensitive experiments right now and can't really take the time to fight a robot."

"It's not a choice," Monger told him. "Move it!"

He led the monsters to the surface, where a massive aircraft stood idling on the runway. It was the largest plane Susan had ever seen. As long as a jumbo, it was much broader. It actually looked quite comical, she thought, and utterly unable to fly.

"Get in," Monger ordered.

"How?" Susan automatically asked, then gasped as the entire front of the aircraft swung open, revealing a cavernous interior. Nervously, she crawled inside, and managed to sit on the floor with her legs bent and her head and shoulders curled over.

"Where are we headed?" she asked, but Monger had already parked his jeep inside and vanished.

"No idea," Cockroach sighed. "Need to know, he always says. I tell him we need to know, and he says there's no need to know."

"Do you think we might be going to Europe?" Susan asked eagerly. "Though I don't have a thing to wear," she added.

"You better hope not," Link said. "That's a long way, and you don't look very comfortable."

"No, I'm not really," Susan said. She squirmed a bit, and then realised she could be a lot more comfortable if she lay down lengthwise. "Actually, with some mattresses and blankets, this could work," she said. "Woah!"

She gasped as the aircraft's jet engines surged into full throttle, sending her sliding. In a few moments the giant aircraft had left the runway and was slowly climbing.

It was a short flight. In only about an hour they were descending, and the engines throttled back as the plane bounced down on the ground. The cargo area had no windows, so Susan had no idea where they were.

Monger came up to them and saluted. "All right, let's go!"

Following Monger's jeep, the four monsters slowly emerged from the airlifter to find themselves on a deserted expressway. There were a few abandoned cars, but not a person in sight. She took a look around, wondering where they were.

"This is San Francisco!" she said happily, recognising the long straight of the Daly Expressway. "This isn't far from my home!"

"Feel the wind on your antennae," Cockroach said. "Isn't this wonderful? I haven't been to the City by the Bay for fifty years! Ah, I remember it well."

"It's all right," Link admitted. "Nice to see the sea again. But where are the bikini…"

He trailed off as he caught sight of something. Something very, very big indeed. Something huge and squat, with a single giant eye, that was slowly walking up the expressway on short but very solid legs.

"Now that's a robot!" Monger exclaimed happily.

"It's… it's huge…" Susan gasped, unable to believe her eyes.

"Try not to damage it too much," Monger instructed. "I might want to bring it back to the farm!"

"No, no, no, wait! You didn't say anything about it being huge!" Susan cried, suddenly very scared.

Monger didn't reply. He reversed his jeep back into the plane, which revved its engines and took off, leaving the four of them alone and exposed—in Susan's towering case, very exposed indeed.

A blue beam came from the robot's eye as it scanned them.

"I think he sees us," Bob noted. "Hello! Hi! How you doing? Welcome! We are here to destroy you!"

"Or the other way around…" Cockroach muttered as the huge machine flattened a truck.

"I can't fight that thing. I can't even... I've never..." Susan gasped. She started finding it hard to breathe. She felt like she was hyperventilating. This was impossible—she could never survive. She was terrified.

"Relax," the amphibious ape reassured her. "Ol' Link's got this under control."

"Hide in the city, Susan," Cockroach told her. "You'll be safe there. But stay away from the Tenderloin! It's a little dicey!" he called after her, hoping to lighten her mood.

"Finally, some action. I'm gonna turn that oversized tin can into a really dented oversized tin can!" she heard Link boast as she took to her heels up the deserted expressway towards San Francisco. She felt very guilty indeed about leaving the others to deal with the robot. But how could she, an unarmed young girl, possibly defeat a massive armoured steel robot many times her size? It wasn't possible. Monger was insane—that was the only answer. Or he was trying to kill her. She would gladly trade a lifetime's confinement in the safe, secure Area 52 if she didn't have to fight this monstrous robot. For the first time in her life, she was genuinely afraid of getting killed. How the hell had that thing even got here? Aliens? That was nonsense! Susan looked down at the road, far below, and at her own fifty-foot body.

"Okay, perhaps not as insane as being mutated to a giantess," she muttered. A loud crash interrupted her thoughts, and she froze, listening intently. The city was eerily silent. She had been to San Francisco many times before, of course, and knew the city fairly well. She was now moving carefully along Market Street near the Embarcadero, heading into the deserted Financial District, hoping to hide amongst its skyscrapers. It felt extremely weird to be walking through the city, thanks to her new perspective. Her height was brought home to her here in a way that living at the base had not. This was somewhere familiar, somewhere she had been before as a normal person, full of normal sized things, and so to tiptoe through it now, towering over everything on the street, was very disconcerting indeed.

Her head was about five stories above the ground, giving her a good view into all the offices around her. The strangeness of it all was made even more so by the relative silence of the evacuated city. She also had to be careful of parked cars and other vehicles: she had already accidentally stepped on several, flattening them. Luckily there were no overhead wires in this part of town. She didn't feel like getting tangled up in them, still less like getting a sudden bolt of electricity through her.

Susan caught sight of herself in the mirrored glass of a tall building, and gasped at seeing her full body so clearly. It was the first full-length mirror she had seen since her capture. She didn't look all that different, apart from the hair. She looked normal—it was everything else that looked small. Suddenly the windows vibrated. Then again. She could hear the massive thumping footsteps of the robot coming for her. Clearly Link and the others had not been able to stop it. If they couldn't, there was no way that she could. She had to hide. Or run. Or run and hide. But where? Where could a fifty foot woman possibly hide?

Her heart pounding, she carefully peeked around the corner of a building. There was no sign of the robot, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Another crash made her turn her head, and she gasped in horror. The robot was here, towering over a building just a block from her, and it had seen her. Stunned, Susan found herself unable to run as the robot's single giant eyes swept her up and down, bathing her in a blinding blue light even as she twisted and turned to get away. Then the light turned red, and the robot lunged straight through the building, sending chunks of concrete and glass flying towards her.

Susan screamed and ran. In a blind, terror-filled panic she streaked through downtown San Francisco, snapping overhead wires and knocking over traffic lights as the massive robot lumbered after her, smashing straight through the city with its huge arms. She found a parking building and scrambled onto its roof, hoping to outrun it by cutting straight across the city from roof to roof. After bounding across several office buildings, she took a desperate flying leap onto a house, but missed and found herself sliding off the roof, futilely scrabbling for a handhold as shingles rained down.

With a short scream, she slid off the edge of the roof, her fingers grabbing the gutter as it pulled away. But to her relief she only fell about a foot.

"Oh," she said, surprised, having completely forgotten about her height in her panic. But her attention was rudely directed away by a large piece of flying sign that suddenly lodged in the wall beside her. Her heart leapt into her throat, and she started running again. Chunks of concrete were landing dangerously near to her. Somehow the robot was still getting closer. Now it was only a few buildings behind her. Susan ran like she had never run before. Then her right foot suddenly slid out from under her and she lost her balance, falling to the ground with a tremendous crash.

Susan realised she had stepped on an abandoned articulated container truck. That gave her an idea: she'd always been a pretty good skateboarder as a child, so she unhooked the trailer from the cab, ripping away the brake and electrical lines. She checked that the wheels spun freely, and saw a weight restriction label on the back saying "Legal weight per axle: 34,000 lb."

"No problem," she muttered quickly, setting it down and standing on it. Now she was able to move much faster. Her flight had taken her to the top of Russian Hill, so she careened down Lombard Street, heading to the Presidio, as she didn't think the robot would be able to follow her across the bridge. Maybe she could hide out in the redwoods at Muir Woods. At any rate, she had to lead it out of the city before it destroyed everything.

She skated along the Presidio Parkway, and suddenly she saw that the bridge road was still full of cars evacuating. She was terrified at the reaction of all these people on seeing her, but her fear and panic were still driving her, so she leapt over the toll booth with an apology, and skated onto the Golden Gate bridge itself, weaving between the cars as best she could.

"Excuse me! Coming through! On your right! No control!" she called out from sheer habit.

Then, ahead of her, she saw a truck and trailer jack-knife and overturn, blocking two lanes and crushing a car.

Susan could see the robot slowly making its way directly towards her, ploughing straight through the bay waters. But she couldn't escape and leave these people to die. She hopped off her makeshift skateboard and bent down by the truck. The trailer was easy enough to lift off the car, and to her relief the car passengers seemed unhurt, though stunned.

"Okay! It's going to be okay! Look, I'm gonna get you out of there!"

She moved the truck aside, and picked the car up and put it down on the other side of the median barrier.

"Hold on a second! We have to get off the bridge before..."

Just then she was knocked sideways by one of the robot's giant metal claws. It had got a bit entangled in the bridge's cables, throwing its aim off.

The robot kept moving towards her, pressing down its side of the bridge, making the roadbed tilt dangerously. Susan desperately held onto the railings on the far side as the road came closer and closer to vertical, and her feet came nearer and nearer to the crushing, grinding teeth in the belly of the robot.

"No, no, no! Get away from me!" she screamed in blind panic, kicking furiously. The railings were starting to give under her weight. She knew she couldn't hold on much longer. Then there was a familiar huge roar as Insectosaurus arrived. He had been lured there by a helicopter carrying a bright light, which now flew away. The titanic bug grabbed the side of the bridge and pulled it down again, returning it to level, and then sprayed the monster's single eye with a sticky web of silk from his nose.

Susan sighed in relief. Blinded, the robot was flailing about, but she was now able to scramble out of its reach, knocking over the concrete median barriers as she fled.

"Coming through! Watch it!"

Link came puffing up, followed by the rest. The robot somehow solidified the silken goo, and shattered it, freeing its vision.

"Hey, furball, where you been?" Link asked, grinning up at his huge fluffy friend. Insectosaurus growled something. Link breathed deeply, and patted his gut. "Yeah, I know. Papa's a little out of shape."

Susan couldn't believe it. They were just standing around, it seemed. Was she the only one who cared that a giant alien robot was trying to destroy the Golden Gate Bridge, and her along with it?

"Excuse me! He's trying to kill me! Why is it doing that? Why would it—"

Suddenly she was cut off. With a massive thump, the robot's great metal claw clamped down on her, and Susan knew it was the end. Terror completely took her, and even though she knew she had no chance against such a huge machine, instinct compelled her to push at the closing steel trap. She strained upwards with all her might, and to her relief and astonishment, it seemed that the giant robot had a surprisingly weak grip for such a large machine. She was able to slowly stand up, pushing the claws apart, and even hold them open with her arms.

Cockroach's eyes opened wide with awe. His calculations had been way off. She was far, far stronger than he had expected. He knew those huge claws must be exerting a pressure of hundreds of tons, yet Susan was holding them open with just her bare arms. He had never seen such raw power. It was unbelievable. No wonder his puny experiments had not affected her in the slightest. He doubted anything short of a nuclear reactor going critical could.

Beside him, Link's jaw had dropped open. A stunned "Wow…" was all he could manage.

Susan managed to pry the claw far enough apart to free her feet. The claw thrust out at her, forcing her up against the cables on the far side as Susan desperately tried to push it back, and keep it from closing on her. The robot lunged forwards, demolishing some of the roadbed and twisting it down again. The cars trapped in the two lanes by the robot began sliding towards the crumbling edge. Susan just managed to stick out a foot and catch them, but that meant it was harder to hold the claw off her. The metal hand was pressing her slowly further and further down.

"Hey! You're doing great!" Bob called, forming hands and sticking two thumbs up.

"I'm doing everything!" she shot back. She glared at the others. How could they just stand there, doing nothing, while she was about to be killed? She was fighting fear, her body flooded with adrenaline, conscious only of the danger she and the others were in from this immense machine.

"Not for long. Come on, you guys. Let's take this thing down!" Link said, throwing himself at the robot. He struck a blue plasma shield, which threw him back unconscious and smoking slightly.

"A deflector shield. Typical," Cockroach commented. It was time for him to act. Get inside the machine and stop it the scientific way, by turning off its brain. He scrambled up Susan's body and onto the claw. From there he jumped into the robot's gaping maw, facing the champing grinders. "You can't crush a cockroach!" he cried, laughing maniacally as he dove inside. _But that doesn't mean you can't inflict a fair bit of pain on one_, he thought unhappily as the grinders did their best to pulp him.

Finally he was through, into the unguarded innards of the giant machine. It was the work of a moment to scuttle up to its central processing unit, where he could see what was going on outside through a viewing panel. Susan was down below, trapped under the claw and desperately trying to block the cars from falling as she perched on the very edge of the crumbling roadbed. Cockroach knew he didn't have time to get fancy. The CPU was a small sphere, with a number of cables and wires coming from it. He grabbed two large ones at random, figuring they were important, ripped them out, and jammed them together to short-circuit the machine. A large explosion threw him to the rear of the control chamber, knocking him out.

Instead of being disabled, however, the robot was now shining out a bright beam from its eye, hypnotizing Insectosaurus. The giant larva froze, letting go of the bridge, which was now tilting again, sending debris falling to the sea far below.

"Insectosaurus!" Susan called. "Insectosaurus!"

But the huge insect did not move. Susan's arms were getting tired. She couldn't hold the robot off for much longer. She was now almost flat on her back, pushing up with her hands to keep the claw off her, and perilously close to the edge. Stuck beneath the giant claw, and still holding cars back from the edge with her foot, she was unable to move. Then, to her horror, another section of concrete crumbled and one car slowly slipped past her foot, over the edge. She locked eyes with the terrified young man inside as he tried desperately to open his damaged door. Powerless, she watched helplessly as the car slid off the edge, the man's mouth open in a soundless scream.

"Noooo!" she cried. "NO! Bob!"

"What?" the blue blob replied.

"Help me!" she shouted.

"Sorry," he said calmly, "I was staring at this bird over there."

"For fuck's sake! Get these people off the bridge before anyone else dies!" she yelled. It wasn't like her to swear, and it made her realize how truly scared she was.

"Got it!" Bob said happily, and proceeded to pick up a car and carry it to the edge of the bridge.

"No, you moron!" Susan shouted. "Move the fucking dividers!"

"Oh, yeah, you're right. My bad," Bob admitted, and picked up a concrete divider, which he then proceeded to absorb. This created a gap wide enough for the lead cars to fit through.

"Go, go, go, go!" Susan yelled at the drivers. They didn't need telling twice. As quickly as possible, they started pouring through the gap and racing for safety.

Susan looked over at Bob, who was still eating dividers, widening the gap.

"Oh, I don't feel good," he said, struggling to absorb another huge chunk of concrete. She had to count him out.

"Link!" Susan called, as the claw came closer and closer to her, the grinders at the back inching nearer.

It was no good. He was still out cold. Susan swore. It was all up to her now. At least the fleeing people were all out of the way. Now she could concentrate on saving herself.

"Okay. Susan, you can do this," she told herself. One last bit of desperate effort. No longer needing to prevent cars from sliding off the bridge, she was able to regain her footing, and found the strength to push herself away from the robot. Grabbing the cable that had been caught around the claw, she pulled it towards the other claw, which was still futilely wrapped up even worse in the orange steel cables. She grabbed a hanging cable from that one, and pulled them both together. With its CPU damaged, the robot had lost control over its legs. Slowly, as Susan desperately pulled, it tilted forwards, toppling over. Suddenly Susan realized it was going to fall on her, and got out of the way just in time. She scooped up the unconscious Link, jumped over a claw, and took refuge by the pylon just as Cockroach joined her.

With a tremendous crash, the robot plunged straight through the cables and the roadbed, snapping it in two. A thunderous roar sounded as the cables lost their tension, and the entire central part of the Golden Gate Bridge collapsed in sections into the sea with a sound like the gates of Hell slamming shut. The pylons swayed ominously, and the top of the one just behind Susan snapped off with an ear-splitting screech of tortured metal. It hung balanced for a long moment, and then slowly toppled over and crashed straight through the robot, severing its head. The single eye flickered and went out. It was now completely inert.

Finally awake, Link stood up, wobbling. "All right. Let's take this thing down…" he said woozily, then was knocked unconscious again by a falling steel beam.

So much for him, Susan thought. All talk and no action. Panting, her heart racing, she carefully ventured to the crumbled edge of the bridge, looking down on the machine. She was safe. She'd destroyed a huge robot. And much of the Golden Gate Bridge into the bargain. She hoped she would not be held responsible for that. After all, she had almost single-handedly saved the city. She—Susan Murphy. Had fought off a giant robot and saved San Francisco. It was unbelievable. She was a hero.

Then she remembered the face of the man who had plummeted to his death, and slumped to the ground, weeping.

* * *

**NOTES:** This is a fairly straight retelling of the Golden Gate sequence, as the main focus of my retelling is on Susan's emotional state and adaptation, rather than the action. However, I have made a few changes.

First, I changed Monger's "getting out" as in this story they do get out from time to time. However they're still suspicious, and so the official authorisation from the president still has quite a bit of impact. A minor change, and one that better rewording might fix.

I was able to confirm on Google Street View the location where they land: there is a nice long straight stretch of expressway running along beside the bay there, and they have got the geography in the movie pretty good (pity we can't say the same thing about Modesto). I've been to SF a couple of times, but used Google SV to confirm some other geography as well since I don't really know the city that well.

Second change: gone are the convertible roller skates. Those always struck me as problematic, since she would have had nowhere for her feet inside them. And now that I know her true weight is 11.8 tons, I would imagine the immediate result of trying to use small cars as rollerskates would be two flat bits of metal. However, almost the same effect can be given by using a container truck trailer (the sort with wheels at the front as well, of course). The per-axle weight is in fact the standard capacity of these things, and so would be easily able to carry her. Whether or not such a truck would be likely to be found on Russian Hill is another matter...

Third change: Susan's efforts on the bridge are not an unmitigated success. I wanted to let her know the price of doing battle. It could be that this change is not needed, or even negatively impacts the next stage of her emotional journey, but I decided to keep it in the end as a way to help her grow.

Anyway, review and (constructive) criticism welcome as always.


	11. Homecoming Queen

The four of them remained on the bridge until Monger arrived in his jeep a few minutes later, as Susan refused to move anywhere. The evacuation had been cancelled, and all traffic diverted from the bridge area, so they were alone again. Susan was still weeping, and Cockroach was trying to comfort her. Her trousers had a large tear in them, he noted. She also had a few other tears here and there, and some cuts and bruises, which, he noted, were healing visibly as he watched.

"I couldn't save him" she sniffed. "I couldn't. I let him die. It's my fault. I'm a murderer."

"Leave this to me," Monger told Cockroach, who was trying to comfort her. He went up to Susan, and rested his calloused hand on her leg.

"Don't take this too hard, Little Debbie," he said. "It happens to us all."

"To you, maybe. You're a soldier," she told him dully. "It's your job to kill people."

The general remained silent for a while.

"Let me tell you a story about when I was a young lieutenant, eager to make captain," he eventually said. "It was in the Korean War, and we were closing in on a large detachment of Norks near Uijeongbu. They were hiding out in a forest on the far side of some rice fields, so I called in an air strike to flush them out. Then, just before the planes came in, I saw a young Korean peasant girl walking along the path near the trees. She couldn't have been more than about fifteen. But if I had called out to warn her, the enemy would have discovered us. So I had to stand there and watch helplessly as she died screaming, from an attack I had ordered. I… I remember her face to this day."

Susan started sobbing even harder.

"Great going, Monger," Link muttered. The general silenced him with a glare.

"It's not something that ever goes away," he told her quietly. "Not that first one. There may be others, too. All I know is what they taught me at command school. There are certain rules about a war and Rule Number One is good people die. And Rule Number Two is you can't change Rule Number One. But if you feel guilty for all deaths in battle, it would mean you could never fight the battles that need to be fought. There's no such thing as war without casualties. All you can do is try everything you can to save as many as you can. And you have saved thousands, Ginormica. Tens of thousands. Think of all those people who still live today because you destroyed that robot. I'm so proud of you. Couldn't be more proud if you were my own daughter."

"You're a hero, Susan," Cockroach added, patting her immense hand. "I've never seen anything like it. You're not a hero, in fact—you're a superhero!"

"You're my daughter! I mean my hero!" Bob exclaimed.

"You're really sweet. All of you," Susan said, wiping her nose with her hand as she didn't have a hanky. "I wish that were true." She hugged her knees. "General, can we go back to our cells now?" she asked quietly. "I just want to crawl in and never leave…"

"Uh, if you insist," Monger said. "Officially, you are all free now. President Obama just confirmed it. Now that an event too big for even the government to hush up has happened, orders regarding your secrecy are no longer valid. The entire world knows about you now. Special Order A-52 is rescinded, so I have no right to confine you or restrict your movements. You may go where you wish. However we will need to debrief you back at the Facility, and you are free to remain there until you decide you wish to move on."

"Thanks, General," Link said. "But I'll be outa there soon—gotta check out Coco Beach."

"You are free, not given permission to break the law, note," Monger warned. "Molest beach girls again, and you'll be right back where you started. Or worse. Now get a move on. The transport plane is waiting on Presidio Boulevard."

"Susan, may I walk—uh, ride—with you?" Cockroach asked.

"I guess," she said dully, stooping down and letting him clamber up to her shoulder.

"Thank you," he said as he found a perch there, holding a lock of her silver hair to balance as she walked. "Wow, this really is quite high."

"I don't notice any more," Susan said dully. "Or I try not to notice."

"Look, about-," he started.

"I don't want to talk about it, Doc," Susan said. "I'm sorry. I know you want to help. I just want to think about something else."

But she couldn't. Her brain was in turmoil, Wildly swinging between the euphoria of defeating a giant robot and saving the city, and the guilt of not being able to save everyone that had been relying on her. The delayed reaction from the stress she had been under was not helping her either. Her hands were shaking, and her heart rate was still high.

It was a quiet walk back along through the park. Susan had to go over the Veterans Boulevard tunnel area, and Cockroach accompanied her on her shoulder. She was comforted by his presence, but was very glad that he wasn't trying to talk to her. It was the rare friend who knew when to shut up.

They arrived at the north end of the deserted street, where the huge plane was idling, and boarded.

Susan was quiet for a while after it took off. She lay stretched out on the cargo floor, her eyes closed, thinking. Bob and Cockroach talked quietly, but Link just sat on Monger's jeep, staring at the fuselage wall.

After they had reached cruising altitude, Monger came into the cargo hold.

"Monsters, I would like to inform you I have obtained final clearance for my next plan. Now that your secrecy is not an issue, I have decided we do not need to immediately return to the Facility. Instead, we are going to make a stop in Modesto, so Ginormica—so Susan—can see her family again."

Susan looked up, startled. "You mean it, General?" she asked, unable to believe her ears.

He nodded, grinning. "I called your family to let them know you were coming home. Now, I also called the Modesto PD and told them not to shoot at you."

Susan laughed. "Oh, that is fantastic! I'm so happy I could kiss you!"

"Please don't," Monger said, retreating quickly to the cockpit before she could smother him.

"Feeling better now?" Cockroach asked.

"Amazing!" Susan exclaimed. "I'm going home! Home, at last! I don't believe it! I'm going to see my family! Derek! Isn't that amazing?"

"It sure is," Cockroach smiled thinly.

"I can't believe what a day it's been! Three weeks ago, if you had told me that I would save San Francisco from invasion by an alien robot, I'd have thought you were insane. I almost think I'm insane now, having just done it! I can't believe how scared I was! But I did it! Me! Of all people on earth, I'm about the last person you'd ever expect to do that! Me, fight off a robot the size of a building? I can't believe I did that! I can't believe how strong I feel! I bet there isn't a jar in this world I can't open!" Susan was babbling in her sudden excitement.

"You were positively heroic, my dear!" Cockroach assured her. "I especially loved the idea of saving those people on the bridge. It was a nice touch," he added, with a slight hint that it wasn't one he would normally have bothered with. Which was probably why the government had locked him up, of course. Considering the welfare of others was never something he had spent a lot of time doing. Until now.

"Yeah, she was great. Really cool. Loved it," Link commented dully, not turning to face either of them. He remained seated on the jeep, staring at the wall.

"Oh, poor Link. After all that tough talk, you were out-monstered by a girl," Cockroach teased him. "No wonder you're depressed."

"Hey, I'm not depressed. I'm tired," Link shot back sullenly.

"Why are you tired? You didn't do anything," Bob noted.

"Well, I haven't been sleeping well," Link attempted to explain. "I got sleep apnes... apnea. Whatever. It's not fun." He went back to sulking.

Susan smiled, and tapped the front of the jeep he was sitting on gently, rocking it. "So Link's a little rusty... I mean, sleep deprived. You'll be back to your old self in no time. And so will I," she added happily. "Somehow…."

"What happened to the 'there isn't a jar in the world I can't open' stuff?" Bob asked. "Wait. Did you find a jar you couldn't open? Were pickles in it? Where's the giant jar of pickles?!"

"What my associate is trying to say," Cockroach said smoothly, "is that we all think the new Susan is the cat's me-wow." He looked embarrassed at how flat his pun fell. "I'm sorry."

"Thanks, you guys. That is so sweet," Susan told them. "But I have a normal life waiting for me, you know."

"So, tell me, exactly, how this normal life thing works with you being giant," Link demanded.

"I'm not gonna be a giant forever," Susan explained. "Derek won't rest until we've found a cure for my... uh, condition. We're a team. Team Dietl."

"We could all do with a Derek," Cockroach said wistfully. "Someone to give you hope. To share your life with. Who will always be there for you. Perhaps, someday, we could make his acquaintance," he added, very curious as to what sort of person could win Susan's heart.

"Really? You guys want to meet Derek?" Susan asked happily. "He's still at Channel 172, so we can see him when we get to Modesto. In fact, he's bound to be at my home! Of course he will be! Oh, I can't wait to see him again! I know you are going to love him as much as I do!"

* * *

In less than half an hour the huge plane was coming into land at Modesto Airport. It taxied to a secluded area of the apron, and stopped as Monger came back to the cargo area.

"First stop, Modesto! Enjoy your shore leave! Insecto will be here soon, but we need to keep him out of the town limits. And Ginormica, since you're going to meet your parents and all, I managed to get this prepared before we left. It's not much, but the best I could do on such short notice. Figured you'd want something a little nicer than a jumpsuit."

He gestured to a wrapped bundle which Susan had been using as a pillow.

"What is it?" she asked, poking it curiously.

"Something I thought you might appreciate," the general said with a smile.

Susan snapped the cables holding it together, and examined the contents.

"It's a dress!" she screamed in excitement, holding up a mass of red fabric.

"Just a simple one," Monger explained, rubbing his ears. "A couple dozen sheets sewn together in a sort of tube, and some rope. I don't know much about fashion."

"Oh, I don't mind a bit! You know, sometimes you can be incredibly thoughtful, General," Susan said happily. "I'll put it on as soon as I get outside and can move."

Happy, she saluted him as she crawled out, and then stood to her full fifty foot height and stretched.

"About face!" Monger ordered, and the rest of them stared out towards the runway. Susan quickly slid out of her ripped jumpsuit. Then she carefully shook out the dress, and managed to slip it on. It was a short summer dress, in red with a simple polka-dot pattern formed from round pink tablecloths. It was clearly a little more than a few sheets and some rope: Monger had gone out of his way to prepare this present for her. She wondered just how long he had been planning this surprise.

"It's a bit loose, and a bit short," she said. "But other than that, it's perfect! And it's so cute!"

"How does it feel?" Cockroach asked.

"Actually a little odd," Susan admitted. "I haven't worn a dress in so long that it kinda feels strange. And I wish I had some better shoes. Sneakers don't really match."

"Take them off," Link suggested.

"Yeah, okay," Susan agreed, slipping her shoes off. She flexed her toes on the tarmac, grinning. "Now I really do feel like a little kid again!"

"I'll be waiting here," Monger said. "Enjoy your evening!"

"Thanks, General," Susan said, smiling and saluting him. She stepped over the boundary fence, and the others followed.

"My parents live on Sycamore Ave," she explained. "It's not far. Nowhere in Modesto is."

"It's a modest little town," Cockroach suggested. "Sorry. No more puns."

"Don't worry, Doc dear," Susan said happily. "It _is_ a modest little town. But it does have one claim to fame: it's George Lucas's birthplace."

"Two claims to fame," Cockroach corrected her. "It's also the home town of the one and only Ginormica, the powerful and beautiful saviour of San Francisco!"

"And destroyer of its bridge," Bob added happily.

"I didn't do that!" Susan said petulantly. "It was the robot's fault. It was trying to kill me."

"So it was," Cockroach commented. "It was trying to kill you in particular, come to think of it. Why?" he added rhetorically, as a sudden thought struck him.

"I have no idea," Susan admitted.

"I wonder," Cockroach mused. "Is it any coincidence that you get hit by an alien substance from outer space, and then three weeks later an alien robot shows up and attacks you?"

"You mean it wanted me? Why? Oh." Susan stopped as she suddenly realised what Cockroach was getting at. "The Quantonium? Do you think there might be more robots?" she asked, suddenly nervous again.

"Ah, you'll take 'em down just like the first one," Link said. "That was so damned impressive."

"Well, it wasn't nearly as strong as it looked," Susan admitted. "I managed to hold it off with my bare hands, after all."

"Uh, no, it really was, my dear," Cockroach told her. "Remember, it was smashing through concrete buildings downtown like cardboard. It's just that you are really fairly strong. And by 'fairly strong' I mean you could lift a house."

"A house?!" Susan laughed. "Don't be silly."

"I'm not," Cockroach said. "I'm quite serious. I have no doubt whatsoever that you could uproot any of the houses along this road by their foundations."

"You're kidding me," Susan breathed. She looked around at the medium-sized single-level houses that Modesto was full of. Could Cockroach be correct? It was true that the robot had seemed rather weak for something its size. She had not really considered that the relative ease with which she fought it off might be due to her strength instead. She knew she was stronger—that went with being bigger, after all. But strong enough to lift a house? They must weigh well over a hundred tons—it was insane! Unfortunately there was no way, short of actually trying to pick up a house, that she could test it.

They headed along La Loma Avenue, passing Lincoln School Shopping Center, then up Needham Street to Sycamore Avenue. The local police were cordoning off the streets as they went to ensure Susan didn't step on anything—or anyone, and nobody was too freaked out. She could see the residents watching, however, from their houses or the side streets. At least this time they weren't shooting at her. She made sure not to make any remotely threatening gestures, however: she still had the occasional nightmare about that incident at the base.

"My parents live just along here," Susan said after they crossed the small canal that bisected the avenue. "Okay, remember, these people aren't used to seeing... anything like... you, or you...or you," she added, pointing at each one of them in turn. "So just be, you know, cool. Just be... you know... Just follow my lead." She was suddenly very nervous about how her parents would react.

There was a crunch under her bare foot, and Susan looked down. She had just trodden on and flattened a bit of wooden fence. Before she realised what was happening, the other monsters had already started to wreak havoc on the rest of it.

"Stop! That was an accident!" she shouted, just as they were about to attack a car with the fence posts. "Don't destroy anything! Just as well it's my parent's fence," she added, recognising the house.

"Susan?" came a woman's voice.

It was followed immediately by a man's. "Susie Q!"

Susan spun, her face lit up with joy.

"Mom! Daddy!" she cried, kneeling down on the front lawn of her home.

"It is you! When we saw the news, we couldn't believe it. It looked so much like you, but we didn't know what to believe," her mother said, eyeing her giantess daughter with worry, curiosity, suspicion, and love. "You're so...big…"

Susan blushed. "I can explain that," she said. "Well, not easily..."

"Don't worry, my darling," her father assured her. "You're still our baby girl," he finished, looking curiously at Susan's makeshift dress.

"But we were so proud of you," her mother said. "Seeing our Susan save the city!"

"Then that General fella called us, and told us you were on your way," her father added. "So we knew it was you. We knew what we had seen at the wedding wasn't some weird hallucination."

"No, but they had to keep me in isolation for a while," Susan explained. "They wanted to find out what happened."

"Did they… experiment on you?" her mother asked anxiously as Susan gently cradled them in her giant hands. "You look a little thin—have you lost weight?"

Susan laughed at that. "No, Mom. I'm fine."

"But your hair," her mother said. "Your gorgeous chestnut hair…"

"Oh, yes," Susan realised, putting a hand up to touch her silver locks. "A side effect. Permanent, I'm afraid."

"Don't worry—it looks good on you," her father said. "And nothing that can't be dyed if you don't like it."

"Actually I've grown to rather like it myself," Susan admitted.

"Well, we invited the neighbours around, since Monger told us you were coming home," her mother said. "He didn't mention there'd be, uh, others…."

Susan noticed her parents looking uneasily at the other monsters.

"It's okay. They're with me," she explained. "These are my new friends, the ones I told you about."

"You didn't mention they were… uh..."

"Monsters? We're all monsters, Mom," Susan said. "Don't be afraid."

"Oh, Derek! I missed you so much, thinking that we'd someday be together again!" Bob exclaimed, hugging Susan's mother so tightly she was sucked inside him. "It's the only thing that got me through prison! I love you!"

"No, Bob! That's my mother! You're suffocating her!"

Bob looked surprised, but regurgitated her out again. Mrs Murphy slid to the ground dazed and covered in slime.

"Honey, are you all right?" her husband asked anxiously.

"Keep that thing away from me…" her mother stammered, looking shell-shocked.

"Sorry, Mom," Susan apologized. "He has no brain. He's a low-level telepath who sometimes forgets the thoughts he's detecting aren't his. I'm the one that wants to hug Derek. You probably guessed that, right?"

Her mother just stared, her mouth open.

"And what—I mean who—is this?" her father asked nervously, looking at Link.

"Hey man, the name's Link, Missing Link," Link said in his best casual drawl, winking at Susan's father. "How're ya doin'?"

"Uh, great, I guess," Susan's father stammered, looking up at the seven and a half feet tall monster, his eyes round with fear.

"And this is Doctor Cockroach," Susan said, gesturing to the mad scientist.

"PhD, not MD," Cockroach explained. "Charmed, I'm sure." He went to take Susan's mother's hand, but she scuttled behind her husband, so he made do with shaking her father's nervous hand instead.

Susan looked around. "Where's Derek?" she asked, suddenly realising he wasn't there to greet her.

"He's at work, sweetie," her mother explained. "You know how he is about his career."

"We're not gonna celebrate without him!" Susan declared happily. "I'm heading down to the studio right now. He can't stay away from my return! I bet he'll be so thrilled to see me again! Oh, this is going to be so amazing!"

"Susan!" her mother called. "What do I do with all your, uh, little friends?"

"Just put out some snacks!" she called back cheerfully as she headed down the road. "They'll eat anything!"

As if to punctuate that, Cockroach, who had been rummaging in the garbage bin, raised his head, breathing in all the odours with great satisfaction. "Ambrosia!" he declared.

* * *

**MORE NOTES**: Rules No. 1 and 2 are taken from M*A*S*H again, something Henry Blake says to comfort Hawkeye, IIRC. The story about the Korean girl is made up though. As far as I know: I wouldn't be in the least surprised if that had actually happened.

I've changed President Hathaway to President Obama, as it's set in the present day and this story doesn't need a fictional president to make fun of or be voiced by a celebrity. Just to add that little bit more realism.

I tried to rewrite the bit on the plane about Link and Bob and pickle jars, but it wasn't working, so I left it as is. It's short, and I did manage to slightly change a few things Susan said. I also researched the weight of average single-level wooden houses in the USA to see if Susan would indeed be able to pick one up. Pretty definitely yes, according to her official strength.

Modesto does indeed have an airport, so the plane won't have to land on a road. I have given them a police escort, as Modesto is not nearly small enough to allow a 50-foot giantess to wander through it without chaos. I actually hovered around Modesto a bit through the magic of Google SV to try and pick out a place for the Murphys to live (the Modesto shown in the film is a generic Smalltown, USA, that isn't actually at all like the real one). Sycamore Ave seemed like a nice area, and not too far from the airport.

I've made Susan's parents a little more suspicious-no "I taste ham", but actual fear and distrust. They aren't quite ready to accept the strange and unusual. The Art of MvA has Link's height at 7'5", which is huge to anyone but Susan (and Insecto of course).

Susan's new dress is inspired directly by one of the very first concept art paintings of Susan, sitting sadly on the roof of the service station after Derek has rejected her. She's barefoot and wearing the dress I describe here. I really recommend readers look up this painting (shouldn't be too hard to find) as it's a fantastic bit of imagery. It's sunset in the painting, not night as in the movie (and this story), but I wanted to pay a bit of homage to that illustration of the sad little fifty-foot girl.


	12. The Outcasts

Susan walked barefoot along the road, taking back streets and stepping carefully to avoid the cars since she had asked the police not to escort her this time. Even in downtown Modesto, the buildings were generally only a couple of stories, making her tower over almost everything in sight. She had never felt her new height as acutely before, and it wasn't helping her nerves. This would be the first time she had seen Derek since the wedding. Or, more to the point, that he had seen her. She was sure he'd be as glad to see her as she was him, but how would he react to her condition? With sympathy, of course, but would there be fear there as well? She didn't know if she could bear it if Derek was afraid of her.

The studios for Channel 172 WDLH were a short walk away, in the commercial area of town near the Golden State Highway, in a low-rise building like almost every other one in Modesto. She soon found herself standing in the parking lot, debating what to do next. Derek would be inside, and there was obviously no way she was going to fit in. Should she try knocking on the door? No, that might panic someone. Then she spotted the studio room itself through the top-floor windows. Derek was just wrapping up his weather report. Susan loved watching him work. He seemed so happy and confident.

After the cameras stopped rolling and Derek was being attended to by an assistant, Susan tried opening the window to call to him. Unfortunately, she only managed to break it. Worried he would be scared and run away, she stretched her arm in and caught a stunned Derek around the waist, pulling him out. She was so desperate to see him she didn't even stop to think if that was the best way.

"Wait, wait, wait! But, but!" he called, stopping when she bumped his head slightly on the window frame. "Ow!"

Susan was ecstatic. "Oh, Derek! You wouldn't believe my last three weeks!" she cried, holding him tight and swinging him around in a circle as she danced for joy. She brought him to her lips, and gave him a huge wet kiss that enveloped his entire face. "Thinking about you was the only thing that kept me sane!"

"Can't! Breathe! Ribs… collapsing!" Derek finally managed to squeeze out desperately.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" Susan gasped. She gently put him down on the roof of the studio, near the big glowing WDLH sign. "Oh my goodness. Is that better?" she asked, worried.

Derek clutched his ribcage and wheezed. "Okay, okay…" he gasped, shrinking away from her huge hands. She wanted to touch him, hold him, but she had already hurt him twice. It was hard, not being able to hug him as much as she wanted.

"Sorry," she apologized again. "I'm still kind of getting used to my new strength," she admitted, with a faint trace of pride.

"Woah. You really are tall! You're gigantic!" Derek exclaimed, now he was recovered enough to step back and take her all in.

"Yeah, but I'm still me. I'm still the same girl you fell in love with back in school," Susan assured him, giving him one of her special cute smiles to try and counter the look of…was it worry? fear? horror…? on his face.

"Except you did just destroy the Golden Gate Bridge," he pointed out. "On live television."

"But that was the only way I could stop that giant robot!" Susan told him. "It was trying to kill me!"

"And you didn't think of letting me know?" Derek asked her. "An exclusive really would have helped me get noticed. Instead I get trumped by CNN."

"I'm sorry about that," Susan apologised. But she was too happy to worry about that at the moment. She was back with Derek at last! Everything was going to be fine now. "You saw me take that robot down? You ever think I could do something like that?" she asked him eagerly.

Derek paused, and looked up at her, his expression unreadable. "No, I didn't." he said calmly. He took a deep breath. "I can honestly say never in a million years did I ever expect you to destroy the Golden Gate Bridge by becoming a giant and fighting an alien robot. I never remotely considered you could."

Susan's face fell a little. Wasn't he proud of her for winning? For saving the city? It seemed as if he had never expected anything impressive of her, the way he said it. Surely that wasn't true? He seemed to be focusing on the negative. Maybe he was just a little freaked out by her size, she decided.

"Look, I know this is a little weird," she started to explain. Then she paused, considering. "Okay, it's a lot weird," she admitted. "But we'll figure it out. I know that together we can find a way to get me back to normal. We're Team Dietl, remember?"

She looked at her love with pride and hope. Derek looked back at her with deep scepticism.

"Susan, try and look at this from my perspective. What about my career? I've just got a job in Fresno. I do well there, which I will, then it's onto somewhere like Minnesota. From there, I have a shot at New York! Network! You can't expect me to sacrifice my future due to your condition, surely? I didn't force you to become a giant, after all. This is your problem, not mine."

Susan felt her heart skip several beats. Suddenly she was very afraid. Why was Derek so unwilling to help her? She would have sacrificed anything to be with him—wouldn't he do the same? Wasn't that what love was?

"But… what about the life we always talked about? Don't you still want that?" she asked nervously, trying to remind him of the dreams they had shared. She felt close to tears. What was going wrong?

"Of course. I just..." Derek trailed off. "...don't see how you fit in that any more," he finally admitted.

Susan's panic grew. Surely he couldn't be saying what he was saying? Not her Derek? The life he wanted…but not with her? Because she no longer fit in? Was he... was he dumping her? Now? After all that she had gone through, all those nights she had fallen asleep to her memories of him? The thought of being with him again was the only thing that had given her hope. It had given her the strength to cope with her fear. No, this couldn't be happening. It just couldn't….

"Derek, please… Don't do this," she begged, falling to one knee so she could be on the same level as him. "We've been together since high school. We've had other problems before. We can fix this one too; we can make it work…. We're a team…aren't we?" she whimpered. Derek just pursed his lips and looked at her. Susan gripped the edge of the roof tightly, the bricks crumbling, as fear of losing the love of her life started to flood her, filling her with a numbing sense of dread. Her heart pounding, she stared aghast at his smooth, handsome face, petrified of what he might say.

"You have to face facts, Susan," Derek told her calmly. "Now, don't crush me for saying this, but I'm not looking to get married and then spend the rest of my life in someone else's shadow. And you're casting a pretty big shadow."

Susan bit her knuckle in shock and sadness, unable to respond. Her mind was not working properly. Her entire universe, her hopes and dreams, any thought of future happiness, was all crashing down around her. Everything that had kept her strong was being knocked out from under her. She gasped for breath, and felt the tears start.

Derek turned, and opened the door to the roof. "I'm sorry. It's over," he told her. "Good luck, Susan."

He was gone. Susan was left alone, kneeling beside the studio building. She bowed her head in anguish, weeping bitterly.

"Why…?" she moaned softly. But she knew why. It was because she was a monster. How could she have expected he would still love her? How could anyone love a monster? Never had she felt so acutely aware of her freakish stature, of how she no longer fit into this world. It had first cost her her freedom, and now it had cost her her dreams.

Slowly she rose to her full height, seeing the building, the cars, the trees as tiny toys; alien, remote. She was more depressed than she had ever been. Even in her darkest moods at the Facility, there had always been the thought, the memory, that she was loved. No more. She was an outcast, rejected. Nobody would accept her. Nobody would love her. She couldn't even face going back to her parents. They probably wouldn't want her either. Nobody would. She had nowhere to turn, nowhere to go now. She would go back to Area 52, and live out the rest of her life hidden away in solitude, a lonely giantess weeping for her lost humanity.

Tears flowing, she slowly trudged out of town, hugging her arms around herself. She needed to be alone. She was always going to be alone now, after all. She found herself on a lonely, deserted back road, walking slowly beside the fields, each sad shuffling step taking her over ten feet. The forty-foot power poles along the side of the empty road were a constant reminder of how she no longer fit in this world. It made her long for the scale of her home in the monster prison, where she could sometimes forget her freakish size. Maybe she was big and strong enough to fight off a giant robot, but what good was all that size and power for the things that really mattered? What good was it for happiness, for friendship, for love?

The lights of the city slowly receded behind her, leaving her surrounded by the dark night. But not as dark as her heart, she felt, now that all the light had gone out of it. Without Derek, she wondered how she could go on. What hopes could she cling to now? What dreams could chase away the nightmares of her existence?

She walked another mile or so, still wondering how it had happened. What she could have said to stop it. Derek had driven her away, rejected her. How could he? Because something had happened to her that Derek couldn't face, couldn't handle. She literally did not fit in his life, in his plans. And they had all been his plans, she suddenly realised. For all his talk of "us" and "Team Dietl," in the end she was just one more goal to be won, one more trophy to show off his success. Of course he never had any problem saying he loved her: the words meant nothing to him, not deep down. The only thing Derek had ever really loved was Derek. Susan didn't know which hurt more—the fact that he had never felt about her the way she had about him, or the fact that she hadn't realised it. She had been blind, living in a stupid girlish fantasy. Now she no longer even had the comfort of fantasy. Her Prince Charming had tossed her unceremoniously from her tower, just at the moment she thought she was being saved.

Her heart aching like it had never ached before, she trudged wearily down the desolate road. She had no goal, other than to get out of town, away from all the reminders of her hideous size, and be alone in the dark emptiness that was her life now.

Eventually she spotted an old service station with a v-shaped roof, and decided to rest on it, too depressed to even walk any further. She wasn't going anywhere, after all. Her entire life was going nowhere. The steel roof sagged a little, but held her weight. She hung her head and let the tears fall freely.

Why had this happened to her? If only she had not been hit by that meteorite. If only her life were normal. But would that really have been better? Susan was no longer sure. She would have married Derek, but would she have been happy, now that she knew just how little she as a person had meant to him? She didn't know, but the thought that she was probably doomed to be unhappy whatever had happened that day was like a dull knife twisting in her heart.

After a while she became aware that she was no longer alone. The other three monsters had found her, and had joined her on the roof. No doubt she was easy to track, she realised. She wiped her face, trying to hide her pain from her friends.

Cockroach looked up at her. Clearly something horrible had happened to her to drive her out to this remote place. It was obvious she had been weeping, and he had a pretty good idea why, since she had been so happy as she headed off to see her betrothed. But he didn't want to bring her down any more than she already was. Especially after the disaster that was the pool party at her parents' place. That was something she didn't need to know about.

"Wow! What a shindig!" Cockroach said, trying to use hip American youth slang. "Your parents really know how to, uh, throw it down!"

He nudged Link meaningfully, as the green scaled ape was just staring sullenly at the road.

"What? No, that was a great party, one of the best I've been to since… I got out of prison," Link assured Susan in a dull voice.

Bob looked sceptical. "I must have been at a different party, 'cause that's not how I interpreted it at all. I don't think your parents liked me, and I don't think they liked Link. Doc? Meh…"

Cockroach slumped. Bluffing their way out of this was not going to work. Bob was too literal for that. He sighed.

"Well, at least the garbage was free. You know? I mean..." He wasn't sure what he meant. He didn't want to have to tell Susan that her parents had reacted just as badly as everyone else. Just because of a very minor chemical explosion he had accidentally caused, and Link getting chlorine in his eyes and being unable to see clearly as he groped for a towel. It was the panicking and shrieking and running and terror all over again. Wherever they went they caused terror. Fear. Hatred. It was so hard to be hated by everybody. So very hard…

"Ah, who are we kidding?" Link growled. "We could save every city on the planet, and they'd still treat us the same way they've always treated us... Like monsters," he finished.

"Right. Monsters," Susan said softly, truly feeling it in her heart for the first time. It hurt, intensely. It was like admitting that she would never have a normal life again. Rejected by everyone. "Outcasts. God help the outcasts…"

There was a short silence. Cockroach desperately tried to think of something to say, anything, to cheer her up. But his mind was a blank. He was too depressed himself.

"Anyway, how is Derek?" Bob asked. "You two love-birds have a great night?"

In response, Susan started weeping again.

"Dammit Bob," Cockroach whispered to the blue blob. "Why do you think she is out here?"

For a while, Susan didn't respond. "Derek… Derek is a… selfish jerk," she eventually said, throwing her hands into the air. It was both very hard, and very liberating, to finally say it out loud.

"No!" Bob cried.

"Yes," Susan told them dully. Her pretty red dress had torn already. There was a slight rip from a tree she had brushed past. She fiddled with the hem, ripping it a little more, then she stood up and walked over to the other side of the road, looming over the power pole. "All that talk about 'us'. 'I'm so proud of _us_.' '_Us_ just got a job in Fresno.' There is no 'us'! There was only ever Derek!"

Susan paced back and forth angrily. "Why did I have to get hit by a meteor to see that? I was so blind!"

She turned in fury towards the other monsters. Sensing what was coming, Link and Cockroach scuttled to the ground. Susan gave the roof of the service station forecourt a tremendous kick, sending it, and Bob, flying into the night sky.

"Why the hell did I ever think life with Derek would be so great, anyway?" she asked the others rhetorically. "Why did I need him to give my life meaning? I would have been nothing, an ornament, living a dull, pointless life as the Weatherman's Wife. Always in his shadow. I don't want that. Not now. That's not me. Not any more. I mean, look at all the stuff I've done without him. Fighting an alien robot? That was me, not him! What has Derek ever done? I saved San Francisco! I did! And that was amazing!" she exclaimed. Then she bent down to be close to the others.

"Monsters? Screw that! You're my best friends! Any one of you are a million miles better than Derek. He's nothing! You're all amazing! Dr Cockroach! You can crawl up walls and build a supercomputer out of a pizza box, two cans of hairspray, and..." She was stuck for words.

"A paper clip!" Cockroach suggested, looking very proud.

"Amazing!" Susan declared. She turned to Link. "And you! You're the Missing Link! Scourge of the South Seas! You personally carried off two hundred and fifty co-eds from Coco Beach, and still had the strength to fight off the National Guard!"

"And the Coast Guard!" Link reminded her proudly. "And also the lifeguard," he added as an afterthought.

"Amazing!" Susan assured him.

There was a splatch as Bob finally landed back on the road. Susan turned to him.

"Bob! Who else could fall from unimaginable heights and end up without a single scratch?"

Bob hesitantly pointed at Susan.

"You?"

"You," Susan smiled at him.

"Amusing!" Bob exclaimed, looking muddled.

Insectosaurus had now caught up with them, having been unable to fit in the Modesto streets. He roared something unintelligible.

"Good point, Insecto!" Link called. "Susan, don't short-change yourself!"

Susan stood up, her fists bunched and an implacable expression on her face.

"Oh, I'm not going to short-change myself ever again! The hell with Derek. The hell with hiding, trying to fit in, shame at what I am. Why should I worry about not casting a big shadow? I'm going to cast a _giant_ shadow, and the hell with you, Derek, and all those others who can't deal with it!"

"Testify!" Link shouted. "Monsters rule!"

"Yeah…" Susan breathed, a bit embarrassed about having got so carried away. It felt good, though. Her heart was racing like she had jumped off a cliff, and she felt like she could take on the world.

"Magnificent," Cockroach agreed, looking up at her towering, radiant form. Then he realised it was radiant for a reason: it was lit up from above by a bright piercing beam of light. Suddenly Susan was being lifted into the air, pulled up by some form of tractor beam.

"Susan!" the three monsters cried in unison.

Susan screamed in terror as she felt herself be drawn slowly up. Twisting in the air, she saw a gigantic UFO hovering overhead, and she was rising slowly but inexorably towards a brilliantly lit hatchway on the underside of one of its arms.

Just then a gob of sticky silk thread struck her on her feet. Insectosaurus had launched it, and was trying to pull her back. Susan grabbed the silk ropes, and heaved. She did not notice the gathering pink glow at the bottom of the spacecraft until it had formed into a ball and had been launched at the giant insect. It struck him full on, sending him toppling over, rigid.

"Insectosaurus! No!" Link yelled, racing over to the fallen creature. "You're gonna make it. It's going to be all right. Look at me! Don't you close those eyes! Don't you dare close those eyes…"

That was the last Susan saw as she was drawn inside the hovering craft and blacked out.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**: This follows the story fairly closely, but I have removed any hint of comedy from Derek's lines, and changed them around a bit. I've also removed Bob's comedy bit about the fake phone number as I felt it was a little inappropriate for what is supposed to be a very bleak scene. It can work in a way, Bob just being Bob and emphasizing the bleakness through the counterpoint of inappropriate humour, so I did add in a little wee bit. I've also never been entirely happy with what I term the "Amazing Speech" by Susan, as it seems to come a little out of left field and can be a touch over the top ("You hardly need an introduction!" doesn't work at all for me). I've also been careful to have Susan use "amazing!" several times in earlier chapters to establish it as a go-to word for her.

**ADDITIONAL NOTES (Feb 7th)**: I've made a couple of minor changes to this chapter, based on character information from the Art of MvA, which I now have a copy of. I hadn't realised the significance of the photo in the hallway at the beginning: it's a prom photo. Susan and Derek were high-school sweethearts, which I think adds something more to her loss here, and the road she walks along is explictly described as a very minor, almost abandoned one-as lonely and desolate as she was feeling. Again, I think this is an important point, so I have removed the mention of the real Maze Boulevard. It's not just "any" road she walks down...


	13. My Strength is Made Perfect in Weakness

She was cold. The chill slowly penetrated her, and she became dimly aware that she was lying down on a hard surface. Her brain was fuzzy, filled with strange images. Monsters and giants and robots and destruction.

"Derek…" she called. There was no answer, and suddenly Susan remembered. A brief, sharp pang of loss shot through her before she regained control. The old Susan would have gone to pieces, but not the new Susan, she told herself. She had been through too much now.

Susan slowly opened her eyes, and looked around. She was in a huge gloomy hanger of some sort, filled with massive strange shapes. Her eyes focused, and to her horror she realised that they was full of more of the same robot that had attacked her. She carefully got to her feet, hoping they hadn't noticed her. But they seemed to be inactive. Then she realised she wasn't wearing her dress any more. Instead, she was now wearing a skin-tight yet very flexible dark suit, with little silver dots and thin silver stripes covering it in semi-random patterns, rather like circuit board wiring. She wasn't pleased that for the second time she had been stripped and changed while she slept, but had to admit that this was lot snazzier than the government-issued jumpsuits.

But where was she? The last thing she remembered was…a bright light and a feeling of floating. Before that… the agonising roar of Insectosaurus as he was enveloped by the alien weapon. _So_, Susan thought to herself. _I've been abducted. Well, these aliens messed with the wrong monster_... She tiptoed carefully forwards, then heard a buzzing sound, swooping between the robots. Before she had pinpointed it, she found herself trapped in a floating cage, with bars made of glowing beams of plasma. It stung when she tried to touch one.

Then she saw something approaching her, flying slowly through the air. It was like nothing she had ever seen before: multiple-eyed, with tentacles for legs, and a huge misshapen head, standing on a floating scooter of some sort. It came right up to the glowing bars, and Susan could see that it was roughly human-sized, though perhaps a little taller. Seven or eight feet, she guessed. It spoke to her, and to her surprise she could understand it. It was like it was speaking directly in her mind, though it wasn't telepathy.

"You wake up in a strange place, wearing strange clothes, imprisoned by a strange being floating on a strange hovering device. Strange, isn't it?" it said smoothly in a rich baritone, fixing her with a menacing stare.

Susan stared right back, determined not to be afraid any more. After her monster friends, a single alien barely rated as mildly freakish. "Hardly. It's not the first time."

"But it will be the last," the creature hissed after a confused moment. "I see the suit has been applied. Now I can obtain my precious in safety. To the extraction chamber!" it ordered, and moved off.

Susan found herself floating along behind the alien creature. Why was she continually being hounded by aliens? And what was this extraction chamber?

"Look, what is it that you want from me?" she demanded to know. Was Cockroach right, she wondered.

The alien turned on her. "You have stolen what is rightfully mine!" it declared.

"I didn't steal anything from you," Susan shot back. "You stole me!"

"The robot probe confirmed it: you are carbon-based life-form Susan Murphy, and your enormous, grotesque body contains Quantonium, the most powerful substance in the universe," the alien sneered. "Did you really think you could keep it from me?"

"That's what this is all about?" Susan asked, aghast. "You destroyed San Francisco, you terrified millions of people..." She thought of Insectosaurus, lying there on the field. "...you killed my friend, just to get to me?"

"If you only knew the full power of Quantonium, you would realise that I would destroy half the universe to acquire it!" the alien told her. "It's a shame you won't be around to see what the power of Quantonium can do in the tentacles of someone who knows how to use it!"

"I know how to use it… just fine!" Susan yelled at him, punching the force field. It tossed her back, and she rubbed her fist in pain.

"Don't bother. That force field is impenetrable," the alien sneered.

Now Susan was getting very angry indeed. She had had enough of being treated as second-rate. First by Derek, now by this disgusting thing. All her life, nobody had ever expected anything more from her than just to be a good girl. To be sweet and demure and above all do what everyone expected of her. No more. It was time to exert her personality…

The alien's sneer faltered as Susan punched the force field again, this time with more power. She broke straight through it and hit him, knocking him off balance. Then Susan managed to force both hands through the plasma, and proceeded to furiously rip the plasma beams to shreds. The cage collapsed down, and Susan caught the heavy top part before it fell on her. She stood, holding it high above her head.

The alien gasped, and accelerated his hover vehicle, dashing into a tunnel and shutting the blast door just as Susan hurled the top part of the cage at him. It hit the door, leaving a large dent.

Susan walked up to the door. It was a bit taller than she was, but didn't seem that strong. _A good hard punch_, she thought, fuming…

The alien smirked at her through a window. "That should stop your puny-" He gulped as Susan's fist came through, rapidly followed by the rest of her. He sped away down the tunnel with Susan in hot pursuit.

"Computer, close door, hangar two!"

Susan burst through it like it was made of wet cardboard.

"Close door, hangar three!"

She burst through that one as well. She had never felt so powerful, even when fighting the robot. It was almost euphoric. Each door she smashed was like smashing another metaphorical wall people placed in her path. People like Derek. She took out her anger against him, against her old, weak self, against everything and everyone that had conspired to make her feel small, on the strong metal doors. The alien would pay for what he had done to her friend.

"Door, hangar four! Close them all!" the alien shrieked as it dove into a smaller side tunnel.

Susan couldn't follow him down it, but she could see where it led, and kept pace with him down the main tunnel, occasionally punching through to the smaller one to try and grab her alien kidnapper. Finally she broke through a wall and jumped down to a wide bridge over a huge steel chasm. She managed to grab the hoverbike, smashing it down on the bridge before she landed with a little more grace.

The alien jumped out of the wreckage and ran on its many tentacled legs to the far side of the bridge, to a sort of island piled with machinery where two other bridges coming from other areas of the ship also met. Susan ran after him, and was almost ready to grab the pesky little creature when she found herself trapped again. This time it was a solid vessel, with walls made of thick glass or some other transparent substance.

Glaring at the alien, she pounded on the glass, cracking it. She would not be stopped again.

"Computer, begin extraction!" the alien shrieked, and Susan found herself surrounded by a whirling greenish-white light. Pain filled her, but she still kept pounding on the glass. She felt weaker and weaker, and very disorientated. Finally the swirling light stopped, and the cage opened. Susan tumbled out, panting and aching all over. She looked up at the alien, who now seemed much bigger. Or was she smaller? Extraction? The Quantonium must have been removed from her, she realised, returning her to her normal size. Along with the costume she was wearing. She staggered, and her heart started beating even faster. Now that she no longer had the physical size and strength of Ginormica, she was suddenly terrified. She had not realised until now how much of a comfort it had been, even in her darkest hours.

The alien stood over her, gloating. "You have not even begun to understand the power of Quantonium! You think it's merely something to make you big and strong? How little you understand. Quantonium, you ugly scrap of flesh, is the ultimate energy source in the universe—it is infinite energy! You can never use it up! Because it doesn't really exist! Surprised? Let me explain. You see, Quantonium is a substance from another universe. It doesn't obey our physical laws. And it allows me to tap into the energy of that universe—an entire universe's worth of power is mine! I had to destroy a entire sun to obtain the smallest scrap! But with the Quantonium, I can create millions upon millions of mindless minions! Finally, I can rebuild my civilisation on a new planet. Any thoughts on which? Your planet, perhaps?"

Susan glared up at him. No. She would not be afraid, she told herself. Not any more. "You keep your slimy tentacles off my planet!"

The alien grabbed her throat with one of his cold tentacles, lifting her up and choking her. It laughed. "Bold words. And how are you going to stop me, like that? Without the Quantonium you are a tiny pathetic carbon-based life-form. You're nothing! You're weak!" he spat, tossing her aside.

Susan lay on the cold metal floor, shaking from fear and anger. She felt very small. It was hard to remain strong, but she had to try. Not just for her sake, but for the entire planet's sake. Though she had no idea what she could do. But she wouldn't be weak any more.

"There are innocent people down there who didn't do anything!" she warned him.

"There were innocent people on my home planet before it was destroyed!" the alien shot back.

"Look, I'm sorry your planet was destroyed…" she began, but was cut off.

"Oh, don't be. I'm the one who destroyed it," the alien admitted. "Needed to explode the sun to get the Quantonium. Besides, it was only inhabited by people who refused to worship me. No longer. My new subjects will have the proper respect! Computer, initialise cloning machine!"

The alien stepped into a strange device, which shone a bright light on him as it spun rapidly. Susan looked around for a way to escape. The hole she had broken through was at least a hundred feet up, and quite inaccessible. But there might be a route at the end of the bridge. She got up, and was about to make a dash for it when the machine stopped and the alien got out.

"Oh, dooo try to run, Suuusan," the alien taunted. "You can't get off this ship. I shall track you down and kill you. It will be like hunting snaznar back home. Only I will be able to enjoy your screams for mercy."

Susan blanched, and remained rooted to the spot. There was nothing she could do now. Giant machinery was humming smoothly into operation, creating hundreds upon hundreds of clones of the alien. In turn, they were all issued uniforms and weapons, and began marching out in three directions as the next batch was formed.

"Welcome to the birth of Gallaxhar's Planet," the alien said smugly. "And the death of yours."

"You're insane," she said. "A lunatic."

"And you're useless to me now. I shall return you to your planet."

Susan's heart leapt. "Return me?"

"What, did you think I was totally heartless? No, you are free to go. Mind you," the alien paused, considering. "It's a long way down. I hope you are a good jumper. Clone! You, that one! Yes, you. Throw this disgusting creature off my ship."

Susan's heart stopped. Throw her off? How on earth could she get out of this? There was no escape here, surrounded by hundreds of armed aliens. Running now would be suicide. She would have to wait.

The guard motioned her to move, and they walked down the bridge, past squads of identical alien clones, all armed and ready for battle. Susan was terrified. How could they be stopped? There seemed to be so many. Earth was doomed. She was doomed. She felt her eyes prickle again. _No, Susan_, she told herself. _Don't start weeping again. Don't be weak. Remember how it felt to be Ginormica, punching through those doors. Fighting that robot. Saving the city. You never thought you could do that, right? Well, you can do this, too_. _You must_…

Susan kept a watchful eye on where she was being taken, having decided that the moment they were away from other aliens, she would do something. She wasn't quite sure what, however. Run? No, the alien was too fast on those long legs. Physically attack him? He must have a weak spot—those four eyes, for example. But what about that gun? How to avoid that?

The guard motioned her down a secondary corridor. She spotted several holes punched through the curved ceiling, and realised this must have been where she had punched through to try and grab Gallaxhar. If only she had succeeded, she thought. Well, she had to succeed now. She was alone with the alien guard. Her life was at stake. At the next pile of rubble, she would fake a sore leg, distract the guard, then grab a sharp shard of metal and attack him, get his weapon… Even being shot would be better than falling to her death. Suddenly she was very afraid again. But there was no choice.

Then she heard a soft thump behind her, followed by a slurping sound. Uncertain of what was happening and afraid to get the alien's guard up by turning around, she carried on walking slowly towards the rubble.

"Hey, Ginormica, you ain't so... 'ginormic' anymore…" came a familiar deep voice from her rear.

Susan whirled. Link, Cockroach, and Bob were standing there, smiling at her. Bob had clearly just finished absorbing the guard, as he now spat out its gun and picked it up.

"I can't believe you guys came to save me!" Susan gasped. "Thank you!"

She hugged each of them in turn. Cockroach found it very disturbing to have her beautiful body draped over him. He had always admired her from afar, but now that she was normal-sized again, he realised again just how attractive she was. Especially in that skintight outfit, which hugged every gorgeous curve.

"Don't mention it," he squeaked. "We monsters got to stick together."

"But I'm not a monster anymore," Susan said. "I'm just me. Back to normal size again."

"My dear, no matter what your size, you'll always be one of us. If you want to be, of course. We want you to be," Cockroach ended lamely.

"That's so sweet!" Susan exclaimed. She gave him a peck on the cheek. "And that's something I've been wanting to do for a while now!"

Cockroach's antennae vibrated madly. "Very much appreciated, my dear," he stammered.

Susan stood there, looking at them all. "I've never seen you so… big," she commented. "Especially you, Link." She realised he must be a good seven and a half feet tall: he towered over her now. "I have to admit, you're a lot more impressive from this angle."

"Uh, yeah, okay, we can't stand here all day," Link said, embarrassed. "We need to stop Gallaxhar."

"He has the Quantonium," Susan informed them.

"We gathered that," Link replied, gesturing at Susan.

"I was afraid of this," Cockroach admitted. "Ever since that robot I have been wondering who sent it, and why it seemed to target you. I suspected it was the Quantonium inside you. Now we know."

"How can we stop him?" Susan asked as they headed down a narrow corridor.

"Disable the ship, somehow, before he can launch his army," Link suggested. "Luckily it seems that, apart from the clone army, he is the only crew member."

"I need to find a computer terminal," Cockroach said. "I need to hack in and find out where the main power core is."

"Above the extraction chamber," Bob said. "Wherever that is."

"How on earth did you know?" Cockroach asked.

"The clone I absorbed knew it. So now I know it. Until I forget. Or absorb something else," Bob explained.

"And I know where the extraction chamber is," Susan said happily. "We just have to get through the clone army! Come on!"

"I think she's even braver without that Quantonium stuff," Cockroach commented as he looked after her running form.

"It helps to have nothing to lose," Link commented as they dashed back to the central chasm.

"No, it's because I have you guys with me," Susan called back. "We stick together, remember?"

"Always," Link grinned.

They came out to where they could see the edge of the bridge.

"Now, how do we all get across there without being seen?" Susan mused.

"We don't," Link said. "Or rather, Bob and I don't. Most of the army has moved out. We can take on the few squads left."

"What if they capture you?" Susan asked, not wanting to voice the even worse prospect.

"Doesn't matter. We're just the decoys. We just need to let Doc sneak into the command core. He's the only one who could work it anyway."

"See you on the other side, then, my old comrade-in-arms," Cockroach said, saluting Link.

"Yeah, get going already," Link shot back, but Cockroach had already disappeared under the bridge.

"What about me?" Susan asked nervously. She knew she would be no good in a fight. Not like this, small and unarmed.

Link handed her the guard's blaster. "Point and shoot at anything that wriggles," he instructed.

"I don't know if I can kill," Susan said nervously.

"These aliens are here to conquer and enslave humanity," Link told her sternly. "Starting with you if they capture you. So don't wimp out."

"Oh my god," Susan stammered as Link handed her the weapon. She was terrified. She'd never shot a gun in her life, much less at anything living. Her mind was in a whirl. One minute she'd be feeling confident, the next the real danger of the situation would sweep over her. She always felt more confident with her friends, however. Being alone was hard.

"No, Susan, you have to do this," she whispered to herself. "These aren't innocent victims. They want to kill you. They will kill you. Oh my god. Oh no. No, get a grip girl, you can do this. You're strong enough to deal with this. No more short-changing, remember. Take a deep breath. Yikes."

She hid behind a large piece of twisted steel fallen from the hole she had made above them, and watched Link and Bob go to work.

"Monsters!" the first alien clone to see them screamed.

"Yeah, monsters," Link agreed, punching it right off the bridge.

"Monsters?!" another alien cried, before it too was silenced. Then Gallaxhar's amplified voice sounded out.

"Attention, all aliens! Destroy all monsters!"

Susan watched in awe as her two friends ploughed through the small army as if they were walking through a cornfield. It made her feel rather guilty at how condescending she had been after the robot battle.

Suddenly she heard squishy footsteps behind her. She whirled, and saw a guard approaching her, a gun in its hand. Susan panicked, and squeezed the trigger on her gun as hard as she could. To her shock, the guard disintegrated into goop, and the recoil thrust her backwards, off her feet. She found herself unable to release her grip, and was sent flying backwards through the clone army at high velocity, knocking them aside as the gun kept firing out a powerful pulse. She also managed to kill several more aliens with the blaster fire.

"Way to go Susan!" Link called appreciatively, ducking as she shot by him.

Susan felt herself thump into Bob and carry him back with her until they hit one of the support columns for the main power core with a splat. The impact threw her off the bridge, and for a brief terrible instant she was sure she was going to die until she realised Bob had grabbed her legs. Hanging upside down, she spotted Cockroach scuttling along the underside of the bridge. She grinned at him just as Bob yanked her back to safety. She had seldom felt so alive—her body was coursing with adrenaline, her heart pounding, and she was finally doing something worth doing—saving the entire planet.

The four of them ran to the base of the central pillar with a fresh clone army hot on their heels. Bob immediately extended the top half of his gelatinous body high into the air, latching onto the underside of the main power core. The other three grabbed the rest of him, and were pulled up to safety a split second before the first wave of clones reached them.

They scrambled into the power core, and slammed the access hatch shut.

"I can't believe we made it!" Susan gasped.

"Bloody hell," Cockroach breathed as he stared up at the huge pulsating organic computer that controlled the ship. "Whatever mad alien scientist made you, he certainly went all out."

"Thank you," the smooth contralto of the computer voice purred. "You will be dead in moments, so please relax."

"I'm afraid not, my dear," Cockroach said. "I regret to inform you that I have to stop you."

"I'm not worried," the computer assured him. "You'll never figure out my colour code. And no mere biped can enter it anyway."

"Hmm." Cockroach stared down at the changing pattern of lights on the floor. "A hexadecimal colour code system? This won't be but a moment…. Ah, got it. Red, green, blue, yellow, orange, baby blue, purple, pink, mauve, gold, brown, mocha, avocado, adobe gold!" His arms and legs moved like lightning to press the right panels on an interface designed for a being with half a dozen tentacles.

"If this works, the computer should think we are all Gallaxhar…" Cockroach told Susan.

"You cannot defeat my code," the computer mocked. "No human can move fast enough."

"You ever try to catch a cockroach?" the mad scientist crowed. "There!" He finished with a quick move that used all four limbs and both his antennae. The entire pattern of lights flashed red, then blue.

"Security protocol breached," the computer said. "You may enter new orders, Gallaxhar."

"That's the most amazing thing I've ever seen!" Susan hugged Cockroach, "How the hell did you do it?"

"One thing you don't know about me, my dear," he joked. "My PhD is in dance!"

"Oh, you mad… you mad scientist!" Susan laughed. But her happiness was cut short.

"Come on, time's a-wasting," Link called. "We can't hold them off much longer!"

Susan glanced back. Link and Bob were trying to hold down the hatch, but it was starting to give. She quickly added her slight weight, jumping on Link. Not for the first time, Susan wished she still had Ginormica's size and strength. Being normal might be an easier life in many ways, but being a giant could help save her friends, not to mention her family back home, and indeed the rest of the planet.

"Set self destruct," Cockroach ordered the computer. "No countermands possible."

"Of course, Gallaxhar," the computer said. "Ship has been set to self-destruct. Total annihilation in T minus six minutes. Enjoy your explosion."

Gallaxhar's voice cut in. "Well, launch the invasion then!"

"Invasion no longer possible," came the calm voice of the computer. "Please try again with another ship."

"Flagnarl! Divert the Quantonium to the bridge, and prepare my escape capsule!"

His voice cut out, and they realised that the pounding on the hatch had stopped. Link cautiously opened it a crack, then wider.

"Look at that! They're all running scared! Monsters win!"

"I don't think that's why they're running," Cockroach pointed out gently. "Right, we should be heading off about now, I think."

They slid to the ground along a stretched-out Bob, and started running for the huge door.

"Ship will self-destruct in T minus five minutes."

"Run faster, Link!" Cockroach yelled as the giant door ahead of them kept closing.

"Hang on!" Link called, collecting Gallaxhar's damaged hoverbike, and grabbing the others. They sped towards the rapidly-closing door, but the damaged hoverbike was at its limits. It started disintegrating, and finally collapsed just a few feet from the door. As the others were thrown to the ground, in desperation Link grabbed Susan and put her on the last part that was still flying. She just got through the small gap as the bike finally broke up, but by the time the others had got to their feet, the thick doors had shut.

"It's no use. It won't budge," came Link's voice faintly from the other side.

"If I was still Ginormica, I could do this!" Susan cried, trying to move the massive steel plates.

"Get out of here while you still got the chance!" Link called to her.

"No, don't say that! I'm not leaving you guys!" Susan shouted, futilely pounding on the door trapping her friends.

"Yes, you are," came Cockroach's calm, polished voice. "Rendezvous with Monger. He's outside the ship, waiting for you. Go, while there's still time."

Susan turned, looking for anything that might be an emergency release handle. There was nothing nearby other than a floating skid from the hoverbike.

"Ship will self-destruct in T minus four minutes," came the relentless voice of the computer.

"Go, Susan, we'll find another way home," Link told her.

"Don't you worry about us, Susan," Cockroach told her. "Go, please. You finally have a chance to get your old life back."

"I don't want my old life back!" she replied. Suddenly she realised that she meant it. She _didn't_ want her old life back. That life was dead, buried. It had been clinging to futile hopes of returning to that life that made accepting her new one so hard. But in the end she had realised how empty a life it had been. It had betrayed her, broken her heart, showed her up for the weak person she was. Ginormica had given her strength. Not just immense physical strength, but mental strength, as she fought to survive the fear and hopelessness of her imprisonment. Susan realised she had never really expected much from herself, because nobody else ever had. She had never learned to value herself until she became Ginormica, and learned that the person most holding her back was herself.

She could not go back to being plain old Miss Susan Murphy. But first she had to save her friends. She had to open that door.

"Computer?" she called out.

"Yes, Gallaxhar?" it replied.

"Manual override for this door! Where is it?"

"All manual overrides are controlled from the bridge, Gallaxhar."

"Right, where's the bridge?"

"Right at the top of the ship, where you left it. That big glass dome."

"Right! How do I get there?"

"The direct lift has been damaged. Alternative routes will require slightly more time than remains before I explode."

Susan had a brief moment of pure fear-induced panic, then remembered the hover skid.

She quickly stepped on it, securing her feet in its wiring, and pushed off. It was just like snowboarding. The skid skimmed along the ground as she whisked through the tunnel to the main robot bay, through the holes in the hanger doors that she had punched through as Ginormica. They looked impossibly huge to her now.

She shot out into the main robot bay just as Gallaxhar's voice came over the intercom system.

"Attention, robot probes! Crush the earthling!"

Susan knew she had no chance of defeating them in her present condition. Speed was her only hope. Desperately, she swerved through their legs, hoping to avoid their claws by staying underneath them. Ironically, she realised her small size was actually beneficial here, as they were very poorly designed to tackle small, fast-moving objects. It was no problem to avoid their feet and claws. In fact each robot was so intent on trying to crush her that it ended up falling against its neighbours, and soon the entire robot bay was full of collapsing machines.

Susan shot out of the bay a moment before they all exploded in a chain reaction, her heart pounding. Monger was nowhere to be seen. Instead she was soon aware of a new danger: Gallaxhar had fired the ship's main weapon, and had targeted it at her. Another case of overbuilding, Susan realised. The massive plasmoid sphere was no more suited for targeting a single fast-moving person than the robots had been. She dodged it easily, and then spotted the bridge, a large windowed area at the top of the ship.

As she drew nearer, she also spotted Gallaxhar scuttling across the floor. He spotted her as well, and shot his gun at her. A crackling beam of plasma smashed through the glass canopy, but she dodged it, feeling it singe her hair, and then before he could take aim again, she shot through the hole in the canopy, her face set in a furious grimace of determination, and smashed into Gallaxhar with the hover skid just as he was about to fire his gun at her again. The two of them rolled over and over, while the gun went sliding off to rest near the foot of a tall statue of the alien warlord.

Gallaxhar scuttled away, hissing at her. "Are you crazy?! You could have killed me!"

Susan stood up, and stalked towards him, furious. "Then we understand each other. Now, open the doors and let my friends go."

"Or what?" Gallaxhar said scathingly. "You don't actually think you're a match for me, do you? Even without my clone army, I can destroy you."

"Quantonium has been successfully diverted to the bridge," the computer politely informed them. "Escape capsule ready for transport. Enjoy your flight."

Susan looked up, and saw the large globe the giant statue of Gallaxhar was holding was glowing greenish-white with the Quantonium. The statue's head was opening up, revealing the alien's secret escape capsule.

Gallaxhar himself was scuttling up the ramp towards it. "Like I told you before, you should have defeated me when you had the Quantonium. Have fun exploding!" he taunted.

Furious, Susan jumped up onto the base of the statue and lunged for the alien, managing to grab his cape. Gallaxhar struggled to keep his grip, flailing at Susan with some of his tentacles, but she hung on desperately with all her strength, bracing a foot on the statue plinth and pulling back. With a strangled shriek, the tentacled alien lost his grip, and skidded across the smooth floor. Susan rolled off to the side and lunged for the gun, but found her legs caught. The alien picked her up and slammed her into the floor. Pain shot through Susan's body as the air was knocked out of her, but she managed to get her balance as she was being picked up again, twisting and slamming her fist directly into his bulbous head with the full weight of her body behind it.

Dazed, Gallaxhar let her go, and she grabbed the weapon lying at the foot of the statue.

"Now open the doors," she said quietly, standing and pointing it directly at Gallaxhar.

"Foolish human! Even if I wanted to, I couldn't! That's what happens when you set a ship to self-destruct! Now we're all going to die! And there's nothing you can do about it, _Suuuusan_!"

Susan looked up. The globe of Quantonium was directly above her. Now she knew what she had to do. It was the only thing she could do. To save her friends, and to save herself, it was time to finally say goodbye to her old life, and embrace her new one.

"I wouldn't be so sure," she said softly. She pointed the gun directly up, and calmly shot the arm supporting the great globe.

"And the name… is Ginormica."

* * *

**MORE NOTES:** I have tried to remove all the slapstick Three Stooges stuff, and make Gallaxhar a little nastier. Removed the uniform disguise as well. And made it clear Cockroach wasn't serious about his PhD being in dance. Also came up with an idea why Quantonium is so valuable, how it works (sort of), and why Gallaxhar destroyed his own planet. Also felt Bob doing nothing (well, dancing) in the dance sequence was silly, since he should have been adding his weight to the hatch instead of Susan.

More difficult was defining Susan's motivations and emotions. I've tried to make her a little more eager to fight when being taken to be killed, even though she is still actually saved by her friends, so she's not quite so passive. Getting her to the bridge was also hard. In the movie, she sees the skater things, and it is not clear to me what she intends to do with them. Escape? No, I rejected that. But even assuming she knows where Gallaxhar is, how could she know where the bridge is? It was pure luck she spotted it, and that it had such a nice large glass dome. Also, the bit where she kicks off one skate, it flies through the glass, and hits Gallaxhar was... difficult to believe. By which I mean that aiming skill came right out of left field. The computer, now Cockroach breached it, thinks everyone is its authorised user, so I used that. Fantasy can be impossible, but never improbable...

The bit about "Susan realised she had never really expected much from herself [...]. She had never learned to value herself" is actually paraphrasing a quote from Reese Witherspoon about Susan, so I wanted to toss it into the mix.

One more entry to go...


	14. Ginormica's Triumph

The globe rocked, tipped, and fell straight down on her. Susan barely noticed the crash as she found herself enveloped in a warm, powerful force that embraced her and slowly penetrated her. It felt like greeting an old friend. She could almost feel the quantum changes inside her, and a great sense of controlled, disciplined power tingling, ready to be unleashed.

By the time the Quantonium was all absorbed, Gallaxhar had vanished. She saw an empty place where his escape capsule had been.

"If you ever think about coming back, I'll be waiting for you!" she yelled.

"Ship will self-destruct in T minus two minutes," the computer announced.

"So why has it already started falling apart?!" Susan shot back as she dashed for the door off the bridge. As she ran, she saw her arms start to glow green. The Quantonium was changing her body, growing her, even faster than the first time. By the time she had spotted her friends she was at her full forty-nine feet, eleven inches again. She felt strong, confident. She felt good.

She could see them clustered down below her, on the central section that alone still stood. It looked like they were making their final farewells, though Bob seemed happy enough for some reason. Then she spotted it. High above them, the massive power core was swaying, damaged by the disintegrating ship. It broke loose with a roar, and started to fall towards her friends. They had seen it, but there was nowhere to run. All they could do was huddle together and wait for the end. Susan had no time to lose. She leapt down onto the platform, and just managed to catch the huge piece of machinery before it crushed them. It smashed down onto her, forcing her onto one knee, eyes smarting from the pain. It was incredibly heavy, but she was fuelled by the desperate need to save her friends. Straining every muscle in her body, she slowly lifted it clear.

"By Hawking's chair!" Cockroach breathed, unable to believe his eyes. Having been fully expecting to be crushed by a weight not even a cockroach could survive, for a brief instant he had wondered if time were standing still. But it was an even better miracle. It was Susan—no, Ginormica! She had got the Quantonium back! He had no idea how she had done it, but it was enough that she had. She was fantastic. And demonstrating incredible, inconceivable strength. That power core must weigh well north of five hundred tons, he realised. More than a fully loaded Boeing 747. And she was actually lifting it. Awed beyond measure, almost unable to believe his eyes, he watched Susan slowly stand erect, and, with a final thrust, heave the huge machine over the side.

But there was no time to stand and gape. The rest of the central core was collapsing. Cockroach felt himself be grabbed by Susan along with the others as she leapt off the platform, tumbling before she straightened out, falling straight down towards the bottom, her fist extended out in front. Cockroach was terrified, but a glance at Susan's face showed her more resolute and confident than he could ever remember seeing her. He could almost feel the power radiating from her as they fell.

She smashed through the outer skin of the ship, losing her balance and tumbling head over heels, dropping the other monsters as they all scrambled for a hold on the lowest part of the ship where it flared into a disc. Susan just managed to grab the edge, and then grabbed Bob as he slid over. Link and Cockroach went right over, but Bob extended his body out and caught them as well. The four of them were dangling in a chain off the edge of the ship, high above the green fields of Modesto below.

"Total annihilation in T minus thirty seconds," came the calm, dispassionate voice of the computer.

Susan glanced down. There was no way they could survive the fall from this height. Not even her. Maybe not even Bob.

The lower platform lurched, and started to separate from the disintegrating ship. Susan nearly lost her grip. The ship was too unstable to try and climb up on. Any extra force would probably rip the entire base off.

"Where's Monger?!" she cried in despair. It couldn't end like this, not after all they—all she—had been through.

"He's supposed to be here!" Link yelled in frustration.

"He said the only reason he wouldn't be here was if he were dead!" Cockroach called up.

A huge explosion suddenly threw Susan off the edge, carrying the others with her. Shrieking, she fell back, her mind white with fear. Then, unexpectedly, her fall was stopped. She had landed on something huge, soft, and furry. She gasped. It was Insectosaurus, alive!

"…or late!" Monger, clinging to the huge insect's nose, reminded them.

"Insectosaurus?! You're alive!" Link cried, sliding down so his huge friend could see him. "And you're a... butterfly!" he finished awkwardly.

"Moth!" Cockroach called down. "He's a moth!"

Susan laughed. Even after barely escaping with their lives from an alien ship that was about to self-destruct immediately above them, the Doc was still as pedantic as ever.

The huge moth flew under the ship's belly as it was ripped open by explosions. They could hear the countdown continue, and were barely able to get out from under before it ticked down to zero. There was a brief moment of stillness as the explosions stopped. Susan glanced back, wondering what had happened, and then was rocked by the blast as the entire ship suddenly exploded.

Insectosaurus's huge wings took them swiftly away from the danger zone, and Susan was finally able to relax. She lay down on Insectosaurus's broad back, safe amidst the fur.

"You don't know how glad we are to see you back, Susan… Ginormica," Cockroach told her as they flew back to central Modesto.

"Same here," she said with a smile. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"So, any regrets?" Cockroach asked after a brief silence.

"About saving you guys?" Susan joked. "Don't be silly. I'd do it again in an instant. Well, not sure about Link…"she added with a grin.

"As we would for you, of course," Cockroach agreed. "But you know what I mean. About becoming Ginormica again. Giving up any chance for a normal life."

Susan propped her head up on one arm as she considered, her face now serious.

"I'd be a liar if I said I had no regrets," she said eventually. "Back in my cell, sometimes I used to lie awake and think of all the things I'd never get to do again if I couldn't return to normal. But you see, the thing is, while I liked doing those things, when I look back on it now, I don't think I actually liked myself that much. I was just sort of going through the motions, undefined. I've always been defined by other people—I was the Murphys' daughter, I was Mindy's friend. I was Derek's fiancée. The Weatherman's Wife. I was never just _me_. Am I being clear?"

"As the finest lead crystal, my dear," Cockroach assured her.

"Aren't you defined as Ginormica now, though?" Link butted in.

"Yeah, but at least Ginormica is me," Susan explained. "Maybe I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time—or the right place at the right time—but it happened to _me_. I became the monster, I became Ginormica. Derek was actually right, you know. It was something _I_ had to deal with. Not Derek, not anybody else. Me."

There was a long pause. Susan brushed a bit of hair off her face and sat up. "You know, I once thought that my life was over when that meteorite hit me," she added reflectively. "And I was right. My old life _was_ over. I now have a new life, a better life! I _am_ a monster—I am Ginormica!"

Cockroach looked back at her, her strong body glowing in the setting sun. She looked more at peace with herself than he had ever seen her.

* * *

**EPILOGUE**

The huge moth gradually made its way to Sycamore Avenue as Monger gave it directions, and barked orders into his walkie-talkie regarding disposal of the alien ship. It would be taken to Area 52 and stored for careful examination. Cockroach was already bugging Monger about access privileges.

"There they are!" Susan cried, spotting her parents below, and what looked like half the neighbourhood.

Insectosaurus came in for a gentle landing that barely knocked over a single street light, and the others slid gracefully off his wing. Susan stood there, in front of her family and neighbours, tall and proud.

Three of Susan's old friends had gathered, and screamed at the sight of Link. He rolled his eyes.

"Oh, great," he moaned. "They're still screaming when they see us."

But to his surprise, they rushed into his arms, jumping up on him.

"Oh, boy…." he muttered as he lost his balance. It was a new sensation for him, having girls chase him. But one that he decided might have its perks as well.

"Susie Q!" her father called.

"Daddy!" Susan called back.

Her father was looking both very proud and very relieved. "We've been out here for hours, watching that thing in the sky, listening to the news," he told her. "There was panic around the entire globe after his broadcast. Every single army in the entire world was getting ready to fight, it looked like."

"Don't worry about Gallaxhar any more," Susan said happily. "He won't be back. And if he is, we'll be here to kick him off our planet again."

"Oh, Susan!" her mother cried. "Ever since you were a baby, I knew that someday... you would, you know, save the Earth from an invasion from outer space," she babbled in her relief and excitement.

Susan raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Thanks, but it wasn't just me." She clapped Link on the shoulder, not too hard, and gestured to Bob and Cockroach. "We're a team."

"Team Susan!" Bob exclaimed.

"Team Monsters," Susan corrected him. "We're all in this together."

"All for one, and one for all!" Cockroach cried.

Susan laughed. Then she heard a familiar voice. In what she now realised was a familiarly arrogant tone.

"Excuse me! Hello! Coming through! How are you?"

Derek was barging his way through the crowd, pushing aside her mother as he stepped out in front of Susan.

"Susan!"

"Derek?" Susan was not at all sure how she felt about seeing him here. Somehow she suddenly felt very exposed. There was a cameraman behind him, recording, capturing everything. But at the moment she was more concerned with her very ex ex-fiancé.

"Baby, I thought long and hard about what happened between us. And I want you to know... I forgive you."

"You… forgive me?" Susan asked sceptically. She wasn't sure she had heard him right.

"Of course. It wasn't your fault you got hit by a meteor and ruined everything."

Susan's eyes widened. Now that she had grown past him, she realised that this was pure, classic Derek. A smooth, eloquent total non-apology that somehow made everything her fault and painted him as the benevolent forgiving hero. How many times had he done that to her while they were dating? At the time, she had just been glad they hadn't broken up. No longer.

"And you know what?" Derek continued. "I say maybe you didn't ruin everything. I just got a call from New York. They offered me network! All I have to do is get an exclusive interview from you."

"Really?" she asked. For an tiny instant, she remembered how she used to share his ambitions for his career.

"Yeah. I get my dream job… and you get your dream guy," he noted smugly, fixing his expensive tie. "It's a win-win for Team Dietl."

Susan let out a mental sigh of relief. The brief moment of weakness had passed. Derek was even more self-centred and arrogant than before, if possible, now that he had New York in his sights. Susan shuddered to think what he would have been like if his career had ever taken them to Europe.

"Derek..." Susan breathed, pretending to be interested. "That's amazing. Is the camera rolling?

"Absolutely."

"Good," she said, picking him off the ground by his jacket. "Because I wouldn't want your fans out there to miss this. You are a smooth-talking, egotistical asshole who blames everyone else for his own mistakes, and thinks his good looks will bring the world to him on a platter. Well, Derek, looks aren't everything. I'd marry a monster before I ever took you back! This is Susan Murphy, saying, 'Goodbye, Derek!'"

She tossed him up high into the air with a flick of her wrist. Derek screamed in terror as he spun gracefully in a high arc.

Not wanting to actually kill him, Susan bent down by Bob. She gestured up. "Bob, could you?"

The blue gelatinous mass nodded, and caught Derek on his descent, absorbing him before spitting him out covered in slime.

"Derek, you are a selfish jerk, and guess what?" Bob scolded him. "I've met someone else. She's lime green, she has fourteen little chunks of pineapple inside her, and she's everything I deserve in life! I'm happy now, Derek, without you! It's over!"

Susan laughed. It wasn't quite how she felt, but close enough. She did have someone new in her life. Someone who was stronger physically, mentally, and emotionally than Susan could ever have dreamed of. Her personal heroine, the giantess Ginormica.

Derek slowly stood up, his hair plastered down with goop. He was furious. "I'm pressing assault charges! You just brought yourself a lawsuit! I'm going to-–"

He stopped abruptly when he found a furious Monger in his face.

"You're going to do _what_, boy?" the general growled. "To the woman who has just saved the entire motherfracking _planet_?! I advise you to think _verrrry_ carefully about your reply…"

Derek turned pale. "I…ulp. I'm going to… to Fresno. Goodbye!"

Susan laughed as Derek hustled his cameraman out of there.

Monger came up to them, and saluted.

"Monsters, I'm so proud of you, I could cry, if I hadn't lost my tear ducts in the war. Not sure which one, now. But not crying will have to wait. The President has just asked me to form a new elite taskforce, known as Monster Force, or M-Force for short, a special branch of the armed forces. Should you agree to join, you will be given a generous stipend, and awarded the rank of Major in the United States Army. The decision is yours, and I would like it by this time tomorrow."

"Hey, General, count me in!" Link called. "Just so long as I can get some beach R&R!"

"Granted!" Monger told him.

"And me," Bob said. "So long as I don't get any beach R&R!"

"I'm with you too," Cockroach said. "Provisionally, mind. I will need better lab supplies. And a smidgeon of uranium…"

"See what we can do," Monger grinned. He looked at Susan. "I know you never wanted this life, and have been trying to get back to normal. I'm not going to pressure you. If you want to go back to your old life, uh, Susan, you're free to go."

"Thanks, General," Susan said. She looked at the other three monsters, and Insectosaurus waiting behind them. "But I can't go back. I don't want to go back. I am Ginormica now, and you know, it feels really good."

"Who'd have thought being a massively strong fifty-foot giantess who saved the world would be so empowering?" Bob asked no one in particular.

* * *

"Well, we can't keep blocking traffic all day," Monger said once everybody had caught up. "It's a long trip back to base, and it'll be dark soon. Ginormica, say goodbye to your parents."

Susan broke off from talking with Mindy and her two other friends.

"I'll be able to come and visit any time, right?" she asked the general a little nervously.

"You'll have all the rights and privileges of a major in the United States Army," Monger assured her. "Including the freedom to visit your parents. Just don't go AWOL."

"Thank, general," Susan said, snapping off a salute.

"Oh, my baby girl, a major!" her father said.

"You'll be back soon, I hope?" her mother asked.

"Count on it," Susan smiled. She bent down and carefully hugged her parents, and let them kiss her on the cheek. She then kissed her finger, and touched them both lightly on both their cheeks. "You take care of each other, okay? I'll visit as often as I can."

"We'll move house, darling! Somewhere out in the countryside where you can come visit easily!" her father said.

"With a big barn we'll convert into a room for you!" her mother added.

"Thanks, Mom, Dad, that's so sweet. Love you!"

The Monster Force climbed back on Insectosaurus.

"Call us!" her mother cried as the giant moth took off. It flew up and around the city, heading west.

"Aren't we going the wrong way, general?" Cockroach asked.

"Negative," the general replied. "Heroes always ride off into the sunset. It's tradition. We'll turn around once we're out of sight."

Susan laughed. Monger was a strange character. At first, she had hated him as her jailer. He had been cold, and seemed to have a cruel streak. But she had seen how, under his granite exterior, he genuinely cared for the strange little band of misfit monsters under his care. He had gone out of his way many times to make her life in Area 52 a little more comfortable over her time there, helping make it a little less like a prison.

Once they were out over the countryside, Monger directed Insectosaurus to circle around, and as night fell they were heading out towards Yosemite. Susan lay back in Insectosaurus's soft fur, and tried to get some sleep. She was very tired. But her mind was still whirling with the events of the day. It was scary in a way how much adrenalin could conquer fear. She thought back to her desperate leap off the collapsing platform, holding her friends. She had been acting on pure instinct then. Reabsorbing the Quantonium had given her the feeling that she was literally invulnerable. She had felt like Superman, like she too could fly. But thinking back on it now gave her the willies. Being Ginormica didn't mean she was totally fearless. It just gave her the ability to face those fears.

* * *

After about five hours of flying through the night, they landed back at Area 52, and headed back to the monster common room.

"Well, there are going to be some changes in your lives," Monger told them. "More missions, for a start, as you can act publicly now. The army has already been swamped by requests for interviews—I turned them all down. Except for the Colbert Report—I like that guy's patriotism. And the President also wants to meet you, and thank you personally. Probably give you all medals."

"Wow," Susan said. "I don't know what to say."

"I do—goodnight, monsters," Monger said.

"Good night, general," Susan said, saluting. Monger saluted back, and headed off.

"I'll see you guys for lunch," Bob said, oozing off. "Remember the cakes and balloons!"

"Cakes and balloons?" Susan asked, looking after him as he went. "Is it his birthday?"

"I'll tell you about it in the morning," Link told her. "I'm bushed and dehydrated. I need a beer and a bath. Catch you later."

"Good night, my dear. Sleep well. You've earned it," Cockroach told her before scuttling off.

Susan was now alone.

"Well, I'm back," she said to no one in particular, looking around the familiar chamber. It had once been her prison. Now it was her home. Welcoming and relaxing, where her friends were all close by. Sighing contentedly, she headed to her room, where she managed to figure out how to remove her new outfit. Then, yawning widely, she lay down on her bed. Her exhaustion had finally caught up with her, and in a moment she was fast asleep. And, for the first time since her life had been transformed, the young giantess's dreams were happy ones.

**THE END**

* * *

**FINAL AUTHOR'S NOTES:** As usual, I have made a few changes.

I have let Gallaxhar escape-dastardly villians always get away to fight another day, and, more to the point, he had plenty of time to dash to his escape capsule and make a run for it, so I have no idea why the movie suggested he was still desperately trying to get it launched right at the end.

I have no idea how Susan got from the bridge onto that platform at the end, so had her jump from a conveniently non-specific location.

Now, as to the weight of the generator. Susan's official MvA dossier has her strength at "10,000 women." Taking a fairly wild stab at how much one average woman could lift at max, and multiplying it by 10,000, I came up with around 550 tons. So to make her Crowning Moment of Awesome even more super-awesome, I put the weight of the central core at somewhere over 500 tons (in fact power plant generators weigh about that, so it's a realistic figure). This weight, according to Wikipedia, is comfortably **more** than a Boeing 747's maximum take-off weight. No wonder Doc was so stunned.

Insecto's adult form is a moth, not a butterfly. After all, he's basically Mothra.

I had Derek be thrown up rather than flicked up, as the latter would probably inflict fatal injuries on him from Susan's finger (yeah, I can be that much of an overthinker...). He also takes it worse than Canon Derek. If he's going to be a dick, he's going to be a dick right to the very end.

Here we see the official announcement of the Monster Force we see in "Mutant Pumpkins." Susan's parents have clearly moved house in the Halloween Special, to a rather nicer one, but frankly they should have moved to the country. I've given the monsters all the rank of Major, much like Charles Emmerson Winchester III in M*A*S*H was brought into the army as a major (and Hawkeye as a captain, etc.).

I debated a lot whether to end this story with another Save the World mission. But in the end I opted to end it quietly, with Susan finally at peace with herself, as that is what this story is really about. The next mission can wait for the sequel (currently being planned/written).

Reviews and comments are still very welcome, even though the story is complete. To those who have made it this far, thank you for sticking with this right to the end. I hope it was worth it, and was almost as much fun to read as it was to write...


End file.
